Ad Astra

by Gregg Chadwick

 

Gregg Chadwick
Beyond Light
30”x22” monotype on paper 2004
Private Collection, San Francisco, California

The Soviet satellite Luna 1 was launched on January 2, 1959. This was the first artificial object to reach the escape velocity of the Earth and the first to be placed in heliocentric orbit. 64 years later, Luna 1 remains in orbit around the sun. The Luna 1 mission was intended to crash into the moon, but due to a ground control error, the satellite veered off course like a robotic Major Tom. Two months later, the United States launched NASA's Pioneer 4. The space race was on and our night skies would never look the same. 

I remember watching the NASA Apollo missions on TVs wheeled into the classroom when I was in elementary school. I was always taken with the wide shots of the crowds outside Cape Kennedy gathered to watch the launch. Now known by its original name of Cape Canaveral, the NASA area was renamed by President Johnson in honor of President Kennedy who was the inspiration behind America's moon program. The name returned to Cape Canaveral in October 1973. 

My monotype on paper Beyond Light was the first in a series of artworks that depict a figure gazing at the sky as a rocket powered craft streaks upward towards the heavens. The Latin phrase Ad Astra - To the Stars - provides a thematic title to this group of artworks.  

Model of Interplanetary station Luna 1 exhibited in the "Kosmos" pavilion of the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy of the USSR