USSRC Celebrates the 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11 with the Art of Paul Calle

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar mission, the U. S. Space & Rocket Center® has commissioned an exciting new book featuring the sketches and paintings of famed NASA artist Paul Calle.
Celebrating Apollo 11: The Artwork of Paul Calle is scheduled for release on Friday, July 10, 2009, in conjunction with the Sixth Annual Saturn/Apollo Reunion at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, just days before the 40th anniversary of man’s greatest adventure in space.
Calle, one of the first artists in NASA’s fine arts department, was given unprecedented and unrestricted access to astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins during the final days and hours leading up to their historic flight to become the very first to step foot on the surface of the moon. His sketches and impressions provide an insight into the thoughts and feelings of the astronauts unavailable in any other visual medium.
“We already know this is going to become great collector’s item,” according to Larry Capps, CEO of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. “Never before has a work been commissioned that goes so deeply behind the scenes of that historic mission,” he adds.
The coffee table-sized book features almost a hundred hi-gloss pages, depicting dozens of Calle’s sketches, drawings and pictures. Included is “The Power to Go”, Calle’s interpretation of the launch of Apollo 11’s Saturn V rocket and the 7.5 million pounds of thrust it produced at lift-off. “Paul captured exactly what I felt riding on top of that beast,” says Apollo 8 Lunar Module Pilot Bill Anders.
“The Power to Go” was reproduced into a mural that adorns the staircase leading up to the Saturn V Hall in the Davidson Center for Space Exploration at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.
Limited numbers of Celebrating Apollo 11: The Artwork of Paul Calle will be available. Pre-orders are strongly suggested and are being accepted now at www.spacecampstore.com.