Fallen Astronaut

Further information:Space art § Art in space

Not to be confused withThe Falling Astronauts.

Fallen Astronaut
Fallen Astronautstatue and a name plaque on the surface of the Moon
Artist	Paul Van Hoeydonck
Year	1971(1971)
Medium	Aluminum
Dimensions	8.9 cm (3.5in)
Location	Moon,Hadley Rille
Coordinates	26.13222°N 3.63386°E/26.13222; 3.63386

Fallen Astronautis a 3.5-inch (8.9 cm) aluminum sculpture created by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck.It is a stylized figure of an astronaut in a spacesuit, intended to commemorate the astronauts and cosmonauts who have died in the advancement of space exploration. It was commissioned and placed on the Moon by the crew ofApollo 15atHadley Rilleon August 2, 1971, UTC, next to a plaque listing 14 names of those who had died up to that time.The statue lies on the ground among several footprints.

The crew kept the memorial's existence a secret until after completing their mission. After public disclosure, theNational Air and Space Museumrequested a replica of the statue. Controversy soon followed as Van Hoeydonck claimed a different understanding of the agreement with the astronauts and attempted to sell up to 950 copies of the figure. He finally relented under pressure fromNASA,which had a strict policy against commercial exploitation of the US government space program.

Commission

Portrait of Van Hoeydonck by Willy Bosschem

Before hisApollo 15lunar mission, astronautDavid ScottmetBelgianpainter and printmaker Paul Van Hoeydonck at a dinner party. They agreed that Van Hoeydonck would create a small statuette for Scott to place on the Moon, though their recollections of the details differ. Scott's purpose was to commemorate those astronauts and cosmonauts who had died in the furtherance of space exploration. He designed and separately made a plaque listing 14 American and Soviet names. Van Hoeydonck was given a set of design specifications: the sculpture was to be lightweight but sturdy, capable of withstanding the temperature extremes of the Moon; it could not be identifiably male or female, nor of any identifiable ethnic group. According to Scott, it was agreed Van Hoeydonck's name would not be made public to avoid the commercial exploitation of the US government's space program.Scott got permission from top NASA management before the mission to take the statue aboard his spacecraft. Still, he only disclosed it publicly in a post-mission press conference.

Van Hoeydonck gives a different account of the agreement: according to an interview in the Belgian newspaperLe Soir,the statue was supposed to represent all mankind, not only fallen astronauts or cosmonauts. He claimed he did not know the statue would be used as a memorial for the fallen space-goers, and the name given to the work was neither chosen nor approved by him; he had intended the figure to be left standing upright. He also denies it was agreed he would remain anonymous.Both his and Scott's versions of events are given in an article inSlatemagazinein 2013.In 2021, Scott wrote a document entitled "Memorandum for the Record", however, in which he stated that the figurine left on the Moon was designed and fabricated by NASA personnel, with the design based on stick figures used as location symbols of bathrooms.

Placement on the Moon

AstronautDavid Scottsecretly placed theFallen Astronautstatue on the Moon during theApollo 15mission, near the completion of his work on August 2, 1971, along with a plaque bearing the names of eight American astronauts and six Soviet cosmonauts who had died in service:

Astronauts and cosmonauts named on theFallen Astronautplaque

Name	Date	Cause
Theodore C. Freeman	October 31, 1964	Aircraft accident
Charles A. Bassett II	February 28, 1966	Aircraft accident
Elliot M. See Jr.
Virgil I. Grissom	January 27, 1967	Apollo 1fire
Roger B. Chaffee
Edward H. White II
Vladimir M. Komarov	April 24, 1967	Soyuz 1re-entry parachute failure
Edward G. Givens Jr.	June 6, 1967	Automobile accident
Clifton C. Williams Jr.	October 5, 1967	Aircraft accident
Yuri A. Gagarin	March 27, 1968	Aircraft accident
Pavel I. Belyayev	January 10, 1970	Illness
Georgiy T. Dobrovolsky	June 30, 1971	Soyuz 11re-entry pressurization failure
Viktor I. Patsayev
Vladislav N. Volkov

Scott photographed the memorial but waited for a post-mission press conference to disclose its existence. He noted, "Sadly, two names are missing, those ofValentin BondarenkoandGrigori Nelyubov."He explained that the Western world was unaware of their deaths because of the secrecy surrounding the Soviet space program at the time. Also missing wasRobert Henry Lawrence Jr.,the first black astronaut and a U.S. Air Force officer selected for theManned Orbiting Laboratoryprogram who was killed in a training accident in 1967.

Controversy

Query from Jan Stalmans to Van Hoeydonck about the number of outstanding replicas, with handwritten reply

During their press conference, the crew disclosed the statuette's existence and theNational Air and Space Museumrequested that a replica be made for public display. The crew agreed that it be displayed "with good taste and without publicity". They gave the replica to theSmithsonian Institutionon April 17, 1972, the day after CBS anchormanWalter Cronkitereferred to theFallen Astronautand plaque as the first art installation on the Moon during the broadcast of the Apollo 16 launch.

In May 1972, Scott learned that Van Hoeydonck planned to make and sell more replicas. He believed this would violate the spirit of their agreement and of NASA's policy against commercial exploitation of the space program, and he tried to persuade Van Hoeydonck to refrain. Van Hoeydonck placed a full-page advertisement in the July 1972 issue ofArt in Americamagazineoffering 950 replicas ofFallen Astronautsigned by the sculptor, sold by the Waddell Gallery of New York for $750 each,a second edition at a lower, unspecified price, and a catalog edition at $5.Van Hoeydonck retracted his permission for the replicas after receiving complaints from NASA, but not before one was sold. Using a box numbered 200/950 and prepared for the limited edition, a sample figure was sold to aMorgan Stanleyinvestment banker who collected space artifacts and works of art. Van Hoeydonck verified the sale following an investigation that began in 2015 when the piece surfaced oneBay.It was bought by a collector living in the UK.

On September 11, 2007, art journalist Jan Stalmans asked Van Hoeydonck how many replicas existed. Van Hoeydonck returned a handwritten response on the letter that 50 copies had been made, most of which were still in his possession unsigned.

Replicas

In January 2019, Van Hoeydonck and Apollo 15 Command Module PilotAl Wordenannounced the sale of a limited edition replica inside a blue acrylic block, as Van Hoeydonck originally intended, which would have allowed the statue to be placed upright on the Moon to "symbolize humanity rising" via space travel. NASA had rejected the acrylic enclosure's inclusion on the flight as a fire hazard. A smaller number of enlarged sculptures are also to be sold.

See also

• List of artificial objects on the Moon
• List of spaceflight-related accidents and incidents
• List of extraterrestrial memorials
• Space Mirror Memorial

References

Specific

General

• Powell, Corey S.; Shapiro, Laurie Gwen (December 16, 2013)."The Sculpture on the Moon".Slate.
• du Brulle, Christian; Vantroyen, Jean-Claude; Maury, Pierre (July 17, 2009)."Une œuvre d'art sur la Lune? Quelle extraordinaire galerie! Quelle fascinante cimaise! Quel rêve inaccessible".Le Soir(in French).RetrievedDecember 20,2013.
• Van den Bussche, Willy (1980).Paul van Hoeydonck.Tielt: Lannoo.ISBN90-209-0885-5.
• Leonov, Alexei; Scott, David (2013).Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race.Thomas Dunne Books.ISBN978-1480449237.

External links

• Sculpture fabricated at Milgo / BufkinArchivedMarch 13, 2012, at theWayback Machine
• Transcript of NASA News Release 72-189 (September 15, 1972), describing the origin ofFallen Astronautand the subsequent controversy
• Slate article "Sculpture on the Moon"
• Official NASA photo ofFallen Astronauton the Moon
• Apollo 15 Lunar Surface Journal
• Observatoire du Land Art (transcript of the bookGoden & Astronaut,Banana Press, 1972 (statement, articles, photos))
• Von Hoeydonck's website
• Paul Van Hoeydonck works at Whitford Fine Art
• See some works of Paul Van Hoeydonck