Apollo 8 Coming Home, by Robert T. McCall, 1969, oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

This is one of my favorite Robert McCall paintings of the space program. The beautiful texture of the Moon, combined with the vibrant colors of the Apollo 8 capsule is just magnificent.

Human eyes directly observed the far side of the Moon for the first time on Christmas Eve 1968. Robert McCall imagines the sight of the rocket engine firing to propel the spacecraft out of lunar orbit for its return to Earth.

This work is on display at the National Air and Space Museum’s Mall building from May 28 to Oct. 9, 2011, as part of the NASA | Art: 50 Years of Exploration exhibition.
Copyright: Smithsonian Institution

“Handshake in Space” by Robert McCall

The great space artist Robert McCall passed away on February 26 at the age of 90. McCall’s illustrations of the space age are nothing but iconic, and epic in scale. I’ve seen the Opening the Space Frontier, The Next Giant Step mural at Johnson Space Center, and would love to see the others. If nothing else, you’ve seen his work on stamps, mission patches, and 2001: A Space Odyssey posters. He will be missed.

February 28, 2010 — An artist whose visions of the past, present, and future of space exploration have graced U.S. postage stamps, NASA mission patches, and the walls of the Smithsonian, Robert McCall died on Friday of a heart attack in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was 90.

Once described by author Isaac Asimov as the “nearest thing to an artist in residence from outer space,” McCall’s paintings first attracted the public’s attention in the 1960s on the pages of LIFE, illustrating the magazine’s series on the future of space travel. He expanded on that theme at the invitation of director Stanley Kubrick, who had McCall paint the advertising posters for his seminal 1968 science fiction film, “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
— collectSPACE

“Opening the Space Frontier, The Next Giant Step” by Robert McCall

NASA has a gallery of his work online; collectSPACE has this excellent post, and NASA Watch has additional links.

“Orion Leaving Space Station” by Robert McCall