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From: RSchatte <RSchatte@aol.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1998 17:25:53 EST
Fwd Date: Sat, 07 Mar 1998 13:43:40 -0500
Subject: Hanks Produces Show on Space Travel


Hanks Produces Show on Space Travel

.c The Associated Press

 By SARAH WYATT

WASHINGTON (AP) - Tom Hanks wants to create astronauts.

While many American kids seem bent on becoming rock stars and
video directors, Hanks hopes his miniseries about the Apollo
missions will ``inspire a new generation of space travelers'' who
were too young to remember the birth of the American space
program.

After portraying Capt. James Lovell in ``Apollo 13,'' Hanks
returns to the subject of space exploration as executive producer
of ``From the Earth to the Moon,'' an HBO 12-part miniseries.

At a National Press Club luncheon to preview the series, Hanks
related his awe at watching ``live television footage of the
Earth ... from 200,000 miles away,'' an experience that ``blew my
13-year-old mind.''

``This is the future we dreamed of when I was a kid,'' Hanks
said, adding that some people still don't appreciate the Apollo
mission or ``the footprints in the lunar dust that will never
ever go away.''

The series depicts all of the Apollo flights, with an emphasis on
the historical conditions that drove the space race between the
United States and the Soviet Union.

Astronauts from the Apollo missions agree that circumstances were
ripe for the momentum in space travel during that decade, citing
the Cold War, economic prosperity and a president who was willing
to take risks, but say that it is still early in the age of space
exploration.

``This is like Columbus just returned to Spain and the world is
not flat after all; it's round,'' said Col. Dave Scott, commander
of Apollo 15 and a technical adviser for the series. ``As time
goes on, if we continue to stimulate young people, inspire them
to look forward and look outward, then eventually mankind will go
back to the moon and go on to Mars.''

For his part, Hanks said he can think of no reason why NASA would
want him on a shuttle mission, but volunteered his talents as a
cameraman or as someone who could ``make people laugh at
lunchtime as we're all sitting around the table'' in the space
shuttle.

``From the Earth to the Moon'' debuts Sunday.

AP-NY-03-05-98 1721EST

Copyright 1997 The Associated Press. The information contained in
the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
otherwise distributed without  prior written authority of The
Associated Press.