The Fallen Astronaut

When MoMA purchased one of his space paintings, Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck ventured out to New York in 1962. Fascinated by space travel he began to think about a work of art on the moon. Three months before the launch of Apollo 11 his New York Gallery approached NASA with a proposal to take one of his sculptures to the moon. But NASA resolutely rejected the proposal. Nonetheless, on August 2, 1971, Apollo 15 Commander David Scott secretly placed a little plaque and a small sculpture in a crater to commemorate those astronauts and cosmonauts who lost their lives in the pursuit of space exploration. The dream seemed to have come true, but soon turned into a nightmare.