WHEN it comes to illustrating humanity鈥檚 achievements in space, NASA鈥檚 back catalogue is as good as it gets. The images here are all part of a book tracing the agency鈥檚 60 years of existence using more than 400 photographs.
The big launches, moon landings, starscapes and Martian panoramas all make the cut, alongside plenty of striking views from behind the scenes, images that give a human scale to NASA鈥檚 vast technological endeavours.
鈥淥f course, many of the well-known shots were too beautiful to leave out, but we also wanted plenty of lesser-known images, so there was a big effort to delve into obscure archives,鈥� says Piers Bizony, the book鈥檚 author and editor.
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A big focus is the Apollo project to put people on the moon, as these picture show.
While the book covers decades of effort to reach the great beyond, it also has a message about the stewardship of our home planet. 鈥淭he fact remains that we cannot relocate 7 billion people,鈥� says Bizony. 鈥淓arth has to be our priority in terms of securing a successful future for humanity.鈥�
In another 60 years, hopefully with threats to humanity overcome, someone may trawl NASA鈥檚 archives for a sequel. Who knows what they will hold. As Bizony says, maybe there will be images of microbial life on another world or of the spiked pattern of a radio signal from an intelligent extraterrestrial entity.
, edited by Piers Bizony, will be published by Taschen.
