|This page last updated| Artists Record Columbia's FlightNASA
Activities - April 1981A tradition nearly as old as the space
program itself continued in April when artists recorded the
events at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., of the first flight of the
Space Shuttle Columbia for NASA. For more than 18 years, NASA's
art program has commissioned some of the nation's outstanding
artists to render their impressions of key events in the space
program. The artist donates time and talent in return for an
honorarium to cover expenses. The purpose of the agency's art
program is to collect an archival history of the exploration of
space. Artists have been present at Cape Canaveral as astronauts
suited up for their flights and were launched into space, and
they have been aboard recovery ships when the astronauts
returned to Earth. They have flown simultors to experience at
least a taste of what it is like to fly in space. Participating
artists have ranged from traditionalists such as Peter Hurd and
James Wyeth, to modernist