In this expanded collector's edition of The Art of NASA, complete
with a paper model Lunar Module and a poster, explore over 200 stunning
artworks commissioned by NASA to sell its missions.
Formed in 1958, NASA has long maintained a department of visual artists
to depict the concepts and technologies created in humankind's quest to
explore the final frontier. Culled from a carefully chosen reserve of
approximately 3,000 files deep in the NASA archives, the 200+
awe-inspiring illustrations presented in this special boxed edition are
complemented by:
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32 pages of new material
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A paper model of the Lunar Module
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A rolled poster
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A sheet of four postcards
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A new foreword by astronaut Tom Jones
From space suits to capsules, from landing modules to the Space Shuttle,
the International Space Station, and more recent concepts for space
planes, The Art of NASA presents 60 years of American space
exploration in an unprecedented fashion. All the landmark early
missions are represented in detail--Gemini, Mercury, Apollo--as are
post-Space Race accomplishments, like the mission to Mars and other
deep-space explorations.
The insightful text relates the wonderful stories associated with the
art. For instance, the incredibly rare early Apollo illustrations show
how Apollo might have looked if the landing module had never been
developed. Black-and-white Gemini drawings illustrate how the massive
NASA art department did its stuff with ink pen and rubdown Letraset
textures. Cross-sections of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project docking
adapter reveal Russian sensitivity about US "male" probes "penetrating"
their spacecraft, thus the androgynous "adapter" now used universally in
space. International Space Station cutaways show how huge the original
plan was, but also what was retained.
Every picture in The Art of NASA tells a special story. This
collection of the rarest of the rare is not only a unique view of NASA
history--it's a fascinating look at the art of illustration and a
glimpse of NASA history like no other.
