Fallen Astronaut
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Fallen Astronaut is an 8.5cm (slightly over 3") aluminum sculpture of an astronaut in a spacesuit. It is the only piece of art on the Moon.
It was created by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck, who met astronaut David Scott at a dinner party. Van Hoeydonck was asked to create a small statuette to personally commemorate those astronauts and cosmonauts having lost their lives in the furtherance of space exploration. Van Hoeydonck was given a set of design restrictions: in addition to the physical requirements that the sculpture be both lightweight and sturdy, and that it be capable of withstanding the temperature extremes of the Moon, the statuette could not be identifiably male or female, nor of any identifiable ethnic group. Furthermore, in accordance with Scott's wish to avoid the commercialization of space, Van Hoeydonck's name would not be made public.
In 1971, Fallen Astronaut was placed on the Moon by the crew of Apollo 15, along with a plaque bearing the names of eight American astronauts and six Russian cosmonauts who died during spaceflights or training exercises:
- Theodore Freeman (October 31, 1964, aircraft accident)
- Charles Bassett (February 28, 1966, aircraft accident)
- Elliott See (February 28, 1966, aircraft accident)
- Gus Grissom (January 27, 1967, Apollo 1 fire)
- Roger Chaffee (January 27, 1967, Apollo 1 fire)
- Edward White (January 27, 1967, Apollo 1 fire)
- Vladimir Komarov (April 24, 1967, re-entry parachute failure)
- Edward Givens (June 6, 1967 automobile accident)
- Clifton Williams (October 5, 1967, aircraft accident)
- Yuri Gagarin (March 27, 1968, aircraft accident)
- Pavel Belyayev (January 10, 1970, disease)
- Georgi Dobrovolski (June 30, 1971, re-entry pressurization failure)
- Viktor Patsayev (June 30, 1971, re-entry pressurization failure)
- Vladislav Volkov (June 30, 1971, re-entry pressurization failure)
After the crew mentioned the statuette during their post-flight press conference, the National Air and Space Museum requested that a replica be made for public display. The crew agreed, under the condition that it was to be displayed "with good taste and without publicity"; in April of 1972, Van Hoeydonck presented the Museum with a replica of Fallen Astronaut, which is now on display with a replica of the plaque.
In May of 1972, Scott learned that Van Hoeydonck planned to make more replicas and sell them. Feeling that this would be a violation of the spirit of their agreement, Scott tried to persuade Van Hoeydonck to refrain, but was unsuccessful; 950 signed replicas went on sale for $750 apiece at the Waddell Gallery of New York.
According to an interview with the artist in Belgian newspaper De Morgen, this isn't quite true. The statue was supposed to be a representation of mankind. Afterwards it became apparent the astronauts had turned the statue into a monument for fallen astronauts and cosmonauts. NASA had not told the gallery owner or the artist that the statue was going to be a grave monument. Van Hoeydonck's gallery owner had planned a multiple of 1000 copies of the statue (he had spent a considerable amount of money getting the project realized), but after the public outcry only 20 copies were made, most of which went to museums.
