You won't believe NASA designed this new poster in 2022
The astronauts who will fly on the next mission to the International Space Station must love vintage nostalgia.
NASA recently released a new poster to celebrate the upcoming SpaceX Crew-4 launch to the orbiting laboratory, and it's got a distinct retro flavor. Astronaut Bob Hines, who will pilot the flight, said in a tweet on Wednesday that national parks posters from the 1930s and 1940s inspired the look. The old park promotionals were made by the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project.
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Astronaut Kjell Lindgren thanked Johnson Space Center graphic artist Cindy Bush for bringing the concept to life.
If you find it hard to believe a serious federal agency would make an official marketing material like this, perhaps you haven't been paying attention. Previous NASA posters have spoofed Star Wars, with all of the crew dressed as Jedi knights, The Beatles' Abbey Road album cover, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Harry Potter, and The Matrix, just to name a few.
For the Crew-4 mission, NASA astronauts Lindgren, Hines, Jessica Watkins, and ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, started their official quarantine on Thursday. The flight will lift off no earlier than April 21.
This crop of spacefarers is the fourth crew rotation for the space station as part of NASA's commercial crew program. To get there, the crew will embark on a new SpaceX Crew Dragon named Freedom, atop the company's Falcon 9 rocket. The spacecraft will launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
NASA delayed Crew-4 to spread out missions at the space station. The Axiom mission, the first all-private expedition to the space station, arrived Saturday, a little later than initially planned, to give teams time to "complete final spacecraft processing" ahead of the flight, according to NASA.
Topics Innovations NASA
Elisha Sauers writes about space for Mashable, taking deep dives into NASA's moon and Mars missions, chatting up astronauts and history-making discoverers, and jetting above the clouds. Through 17 years of reporting, she's covered a variety of topics, including health, business, and government, with a penchant for public records requests. She previously worked for The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia, and The Capital in Annapolis, Maryland. Her work has earned numerous state awards, including the Virginia Press Association's top honor, Best in Show, and national recognition for narrative storytelling. For each year she has covered space, Sauers has won National Headliner Awards, including first place for her Sex in Space series. Send space tips and story ideas to [email protected] or text 443-684-2489. Follow her on X at @elishasauers.
