ASTRONAUT SHANNON LUCID KEEPS CLOSE CONTACT WITH FAMILY VIA COMPUSERVE
E-MAIL

Letters From Home Sent Electronically During Five-Month Space Station
Mission

COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 30 -- E-mail on CompuServe has long connected
continents but is now connecting earth to outer space. Thanks to
CompuServe e-mail and helpful crew mates, astronaut Shannon Lucid will
keep in touch with her crew at home during a five-month NASA mission
aboard the Mir space station.

Dr. Lucid, a 53-year-old biochemist from Bethany, Okla., is receiving
messages sent by family and friends to her laptop computer at the Moscow
Mission Control Center. The NASA flight surgeon is uplinking the messages
and downlinking responses with the astronaut, as orbits and message
traffic scheduling allow. While NASA regularly provides its crew with as
many home "comforts" as possible, providing a constant connection with
loved ones has, up until now, been nearly impossible.

"Since 1978, CompuServe has been setting the standard in global e-mail
communications. Who would have thought it would be used to bring space
travelers down-to-earth messages from family and friends," said Bob
Massey, CompuServe president and chief executive officer.  "It's important
to understand that this is the same e-mail service we provide to all
users. This mission clearly illustrates e-mail's ease of use and
convenience as well as how it enables people to stay in touch globally . .
. and beyond!"

Dr. Lucid is a station researcher on the Russian orbiting space station
Mir, collaborating with Russian cosmonauts on joint scientific
investigations. These investigations will provide important scientific
information about the human body and the microgravity environment. She
will return to earth in August 1996.

CompuServe (NASDAQ:CSRV) is an H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) company.

Founded in 1955, H&R Block is a diversified services company and the
world's leading tax preparation and online information services. H&R Block
Tax Services handled almost one in every seven returns filed with the
Internal Revenue Service in 1995, serving 17.1 million taxpayers in more
than 9,500 offices worldwide. CompuServe operates the most comprehensive
online network in the world, providing services to more than 900 corporate
accounts and more than 4.7 million users in more than 185 countries.
 
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