Tom Hanks starred in Apollo 13 as Jim Lovell, the most iconic space-related role. He also produced and narrated HBO's From the Earth to the Moon miniseries, covering NASA's lunar missions. In 2019, he played an astronaut in Netflix's Gravity-inspired film. Hanks frequently discusses space themes in interviews, supporting NASA initiatives like the Artemis program.

Jim Lovell flew four historic NASA missions: Gemini 7 (1965) set a 14-day endurance record, Gemini 12 (1966) perfected spacewalk techniques, Apollo 8 (1968) achieved the first crewed lunar orbit, and Apollo 13 (1970) survived an onboard explosion.