I love the “future that never was” because hey, that future was pretty exciting, and a lot more optimistic than the grim realities of what’s happening right now at NASA. In fact, the “new vision” is so nebulous that one might say we don’t have a future in spaceflight at the moment. That may change, and certainly I hope it does… in the mean time, I have shelves of classic and modern science fiction to keep me dreaming.

Anyway, last week I was pointed to a fantastic upcoming book by two Twitter friends, linking to two separate, high-profile interviews and reviews — this author has a savvy publicist!! — and all I could think was, “at last, someone wrote a book FOR ME!” This book is Another Science Fiction: Advertising the Space Race 1957-1962 by Megan Prelinger. I must own this book, forthwith. Or, well, forthwith upon release.

From “Another Science Fiction”

I missed out on Apollo completely, and even most sci-fi I read was written before I was born. I long for the Space Age, having never experienced it personally. I’m a child of the Space Shuttle, and my era is ending, with nothing to replace it (on NASA’s part; full well I know that the next era will most likely be commercial, and I embrace that future with open arms. Maybe I’ll even get to go somewhere in my lifetime. Viva la space tourist!)

Which is all a really long way of saying, I really look forward to Another Science Fiction, and I can already tell I’ll be loving it from cover to cover. Preorder it on Amazon — it comes out on May 1st!

By purchasing this book through my links, I may possibly get an Amazon Affiliates payout… in another year or two. For more information, click here.

Okay, so I found an ad I wanted to post after all, because the thought of using space-rated paint at home is SO amusing to me. Y’know, just in case some random part of your interior or exterior decides to launch at rocket speeds… better yet, in case you happen to host a rocket launch in your home!

Saw these on Vintage Ad Browser. Bit of a rivalry going on here, take your pick: liquid or solid propellants.

I would be remiss in not sharing this gigantic post of awesome Star Wars movie art and inspired creations, courtesy of Dark Roasted Blend.

Doubtless there are still more untold stories to tell, but Popular Mechanics has a large article commemorating Apollo 11′s 40th anniversary (coming up next month.) Registering high on my thrill-o-meter is the lovely studio photography of Neil Armstrong’s space suit, which resides in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.

This is the first (that I’ve noticed) of what doubtless will be a flood of articles and special issues, forecast for the next week or so (my local grocery store was still mostly June issues, very few July.)

This is the “First Step” video for Louis Vuitton Journeys alluded to in yesterday’s post — I was going to tack this on at the bottom, but I wanted the video to have it’s own entry. It’s marvelous, and I hope you watch it, because in it, you get to see astronauts, some of the great people of our time, being profoundly human.

Jim Lovell (Apollo 13, which did not land on the moon) looks at his companions and says, “Why me? Why on 13? Why not wait ’til 14, or do it on 12?” He and his fellow crew members performed admirably and were able to get back home against overwhelming odds, but in this video — and mind you, this is just a small part, but it struck me — you see something in his eyes and his voice that is singularly familiar. “WHY ME?” “WHAT are the ODDS..???” We’ve all felt like that.

I just want to say that Sally Ride is charming and beautiful. I haven’t seen a picture of her in a while, and she’s cute and down to earth. I’d like to give her a big hug. What a tremendous role model she is for young women, especially given her grace and humility.

I leave you with a quote by Buzz Aldrin, from the end of the video:

“So what did I know how to do? Be a space man. Think about the future.”
— Buzz Aldrin

Hat tip to Lunar Pioneer for this one!

Louis Vuitton, purveyor of very expensive handbags, is launching a new ad campaign tomorrow featuring Sally Ride, Buzz Aldrin and Jim Lovell… in some of the most exquisite portraiture I’ve seen, hands-down. (Looking at LV’s “Previous Journeys” section, I see that these spacefarers are featured alongside movie stars, directors and the like, which pleases me. Any company placing astronauts on the same level as Sean Connery is okay by me. Not that I could ever afford one of their lovely handbags, but whatever.)

This triple portrait is so striking: majestic, filled with longing and new hopes… windswept and moonlit. A triptych of heros presented in regular dress, wistfully looking to the stars as so many of us do. And yes I realize this shot is modified digitally, but I really don’t care — I’m talking composition and message, here. The photographer, Annie Leibovitz, is an artist in every sense of the word, and this portrait is ART.

The ad campaign is set to launch tomorrow, and I hope to add more photos from this shoot if they’re available. Will post if I find some!

ETA: I found an article which has much more information on the ad campaign here. According to this source, the official site launch is July 2, at which time there will be full, downloadable interview footage from the astronaut shoot and more. I am very much looking forward to this. At present the article only mentions the ad appearing in “international magazines”, so I hope the Internet gets more specific so I can go out and buy a copy!

I can’t recall who posted this on my Twitter feed, but Baekdal.com featured this unusual poster back in March, which was commissioned by Motorola in 2002. The poster is simple: the entire Apollo 11 moon landing transcript, with Neil Armstrong’s famous words printed in red:

First, a neat 19-years-later feature @ Wired on Hubble’s magnificent accomplishments.

HubbleSite celebrated the 19th anniversary as well with an unusual trio of galaxies called Arp 194.

Yesterday’s APOD showed this large gas bubble, Sharpless 308, which is quite cool.

And finally, here’s a picture of space shuttle Endeavor rolling out from the VAB to stand by in case of trouble during the Hubble servicing mission, which launches next month.

Last week, Hubble observed the winning object from the “You Decide” contest, Galaxy Triplet Arp 274, and released the image as a part of the 100 Hours of Astronomy. Both the Hubble contest and 100 Hours are part of the International Year of Astronomy.

On April 1-2, the Hubble Space Telescope photographed the winning target in the Space Telescope Science Institute’s “You Decide” competition in celebration of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA).

The winner is a group of galaxies called Arp 274. The striking object received 67,021 votes out of the nearly 140,000 votes cast for the six candidate targets.

Arp 274, also known as NGC 5679, is a system of three galaxies that appear to be partially overlapping in the image, although they may be at somewhat different distances. The spiral shapes of two of these galaxies appear mostly intact. The third galaxy (to the far left) is more compact, but shows evidence of star formation.

Two of the three galaxies are forming new stars at a high rate. This is evident in the bright blue knots of star formation that are strung along the arms of the galaxy on the right and along the small galaxy on the left.

The largest component is located in the middle of the three. It appears as a spiral galaxy, which may be barred. The entire system resides at about 400 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Virgo.

Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 was used to image Arp 274. Blue, visible, and infrared filters were combined with a filter that isolates hydrogen emission. The colors in this image reflect the intrinsic color of the different stellar populations that make up the galaxies. Yellowish older stars can be seen in the central bulge of each galaxy. A bright central cluster of stars pinpoint each nucleus. Younger blue stars trace the spiral arms, along with pinkish nebulae that are illuminated by new star formation. Interstellar dust is silhouetted against the starry population. A pair of foreground stars inside our own Milky Way are at far right.