Immersive Lunar Documentary By Tom Hanks Blasts Off At Space Center Houston

The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks is a new documentary about humanity’s first steps and future exploration on the moon. Now playing at the Space Center Houston science museum, the immersive film takes viewers on a lunar experience that encompasses both the Apollo Program of the 20th century and NASA’s new Artemis Program, which is working toward returning humans to the moon in the next few years. The movie is narrated by Tom Hanks, and was created in partnership with Lightroom UK and 59 Studio.

It is an immersive experience. It gives you that sense as if you are on the lunar surface.

— William Harris, President and CEO of Space Center Houston

Part of the experience includes a projected art room, in which images are projected against multiple walls, and even on the floor, to create a sense of total immersion. The Moonwalkers originally debuted in December of 2023 at the Lightroom digital art gallery in London’s King’s Cross — one of the world’s leading immersive projection art venues (see our article Holoplot’s Ground-Breaking X1 Matrix Array Sound System). Jeff Wyatt, Space Center Houston’s chief experience officer, saw the original production in London and contacted Lightroom about bringing the film to Space Center Houston for its North American premiere, which took place in February of 2025.

In order to bring the film to Houston, the Space Center had to carry out a massive renovation of its 500-seat IMAX theater. A custom-built 215-foot wraparound screen was installed, along with new high-resolution projection and cinematic surround sound. The upgrades to the theater will enhance the viewing experience of future content as well, but they were a requirement for recreating the original UK production. Lightroom recommended Quince Imaging as its preferred North American service partner, so the company was contracted by Space Center Houston to design and install a projection and audio system that could transform the large-format theater into an immersive venue without sacrificing its ability to host traditional screenings and live events. Quince Imaging, which specializes in projection mapping and immersive content, installed five Panasonic PTRQ-35KU and two PTRQ-25KU projectors to deliver visuals with a total resolution of 60 million pixels. The meticulously-engineered installation uses a custom-designed, seven-channel automatic calibration system, which reportedly ensures perfect alignment of all images, and five Qlab media servers to deliver the high-resolution content. In order to replicate the scale and power of a rocket launch, Quince Imaging’s lead engineer, Keith Price, designed a specialized subwoofer array using JBL VTX B28 subs, each with dual 18-inch drivers. The array is reportedly capable of delivering a staggering 141dB of output across its operating bandwidth of 20Hz to 80Hz, helping to fully realize the work of sound designer Tom Hackley.

There are times when I have seen it and I’m thinking, why are the hairs on the back of my neck standing up right now? You can’t just say it’s because of the words that you’re hearing; you can’t just say it’s only the image; you can’t jut say it’s this phenomenal score. It’s that playing of it all together and when that happens, I think you’re in the hands of damn good storytellers.

 — Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks famously appeared in the film Apollo 13, and co-produced the twelve-part 1998 HBO television docudrama miniseries From the Earth to the Moon. With a seemingly endless fascination for the subject, Hanks co-wrote The Moonwalkers with Christopher Riley, a documentary film director known for his work on space-themed productions for the BBC, Netflix, and PBS. His other work focuses on science, engineering, and history, making him an ideal collaborator for Hanks, who narrates the film. In addition to Hanks’s narration, the film includes original NASA mission audio and an original score composed by Anne Nikitin and recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios, conducted by Tom Kelly. Visually, The Moonwalkers draws from the film and image archive created by all 12 people who have walked on the moon. These astronauts took thousands of original photographs on medium-format Hasselblad cameras. In the intervening decades, many of these images have been made publicly available, but those versions were produced from lower-quality copies of the originals. For his 2022 book Apollo Remastered, digital image restorer Andy Saunders digitally remastered images from every lunar mission, using the original film. These high-quality images, which are rich with clarity, vibrancy, and detail that have been essentially lost for half a century, were included in The Moonwalkers. The result is reportedly a mesmerizing retrospective offering astounding new insight.

We are thrilled to be the first in the Americas to showcase this epic film. The Moonwalkers aligns perfectly with our mission to bring people closer to space. Our guests will be awe-struck as they embark on an immersive, unforgettable journey beyond Earth.

— William Harris

“I’m delighted to be bringing this project home to the place where the moonwalkers lived and worked throughout the Apollo program and where today’s Artemis crews are preparing to follow in their footsteps.” — Tom Hanks

Although much of the film focuses on humanity’s journeys to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s, The Moonwalkers also looks to the future by featuring the Artemis II crew. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch will be joined by Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen when the four become the first people to fly to the moon since the Apollo 17 astronauts in December of 1972. The mission is slated for a 2027 launch. The Moonwalkers has a running time of about 50 minutes, and is currently being shown multiple times a day on the half-hour. Space Center Houston serves as the official visitor center of NASA Johnson Space Center in Texas. It was designated a Smithsonian Affiliate museum in 2014.

More information: https://spacecenter.org/