View source for Fallen Astronaut

{{pp|small=yes}}
{{short description|Sculpture by Paul Van Hoeydonck placed on the Moon}}
{{Further|Space art#Art in space}}
{{Distinguish|The Falling Astronauts}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2019}}

{{Infobox artwork
 | image  = Fallen Astronaut.jpg
 | image_size = 220px
 | caption = ''Fallen Astronaut'' statue and a name plaque on the surface of the Moon
 | title  = Fallen Astronaut
 | artist = Paul Van Hoeydonck
 | year   = {{start date|1971}}
 | medium = [[Aluminum]]
 | height_metric = 8.9
 | height_imperial = 3.5<ref name="Slate" />
 | city   = [[Mons Hadley|Hadley Rille]]
 | museum = [[Moon]]
 | coordinates = {{coord|26.13222|N|3.63386|E|globe:moon|display=inline,title}}
}}
'''''Fallen Astronaut''''' is a {{convert|3.5|in|cm|sp=us|adj=on}} [[aluminum]] [[sculpture]] created by Belgian artist [[Paul Van Hoeydonck]].<ref name="Slate" /> It is a stylized figure of an [[astronaut]] in a [[spacesuit]], intended to commemorate the astronauts and [[Astronaut#Cosmonaut|cosmonauts]] who have died in the advancement of space exploration. It was commissioned and [[List of artificial objects on the Moon|placed on the Moon]] by the crew of [[Apollo 15]] at [[Mons Hadley|Hadley Rille]] on August 2, 1971, UTC, next to a plaque listing 14 names of [[List of spaceflight-related accidents and incidents|those who had died up to that time]].<ref>{{cite web| title=Sculpture, Fallen Astronaut| url=http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?object=nasm_A19860035000| website=Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum| access-date=17 July 2014| archive-date=July 28, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140728032237/http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?object=nasm_A19860035000| url-status=dead}}</ref> The statue lies on the ground among several footprints.

The crew kept the memorial's existence a secret until after completing their mission. After public disclosure, the [[National Air and Space Museum]] requested a replica of the statue. Controversy soon followed, as Van Hoeydonck claimed a different understanding of the agreement with the astronauts and attempted to sell up to 950 copies of the figure. He finally relented under pressure from [[NASA]], which had a strict policy against commercial exploitation of the US government space program.

==Commission==
[[Image:Paul Van Hoeydonck by Willy Bosschem255.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Van Hoeydonck by Willy Bosschem]]
Before his [[Apollo 15]] lunar mission, astronaut [[David Scott]] met [[Belgians|Belgian]] painter and printmaker Paul Van Hoeydonck (1925–2025<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.belganewsagency.eu/belgian-artist-behind-first-artwork-on-the-moon-dies-at-99|date=3 May 2025|title=Belgian artist behind first artwork on the moon dies at 99|publisher=Belgian News Agency}}</ref>) at a dinner party. They agreed that Van Hoeydonck would create a small statuette for Scott to place on the Moon, though their recollections of the details differ. Scott's purpose was to commemorate those astronauts and cosmonauts who had died in the furtherance of space exploration. He designed and separately made a plaque listing 14 American and Soviet names. Van Hoeydonck was given a set of design specifications: the sculpture was to be lightweight but sturdy, capable of withstanding the temperature extremes of the Moon; it could not be identifiably male or female, nor of any identifiable ethnic group. According to Scott, it was agreed Van Hoeydonck's name would not be made public to avoid the commercial exploitation of the US government's space program.<ref name="Slate">{{harvnb|Powell|Shapiro|2013}}</ref>  Scott got permission from top NASA management before the mission to take the statue aboard his spacecraft. Still, he only disclosed it publicly in a post-mission press conference.<ref name="Slate" />

Van Hoeydonck gives a different account of the agreement: according to an interview in the Belgian newspaper ''[[Le Soir]]'', the statue was supposed to represent all mankind, not only fallen astronauts or cosmonauts.  He claimed he did not know the statue would be used as a memorial for the fallen space-goers, and the name given to the work was neither chosen nor approved by him; he had intended the figure to be left standing upright.  He also denies it was agreed he would remain anonymous.<ref name="Slate" /><ref>{{harvnb|Le Soir|17 July 2009|p=19}}</ref>  Both his and Scott's versions of events are given in an article in [[Slate (magazine)|''Slate'']] magazine in 2013.<ref name="Slate" /> In 2021, Scott wrote a document entitled "Memorandum for the Record", however, in which he stated that the figurine left on the Moon was designed and fabricated by NASA personnel, with the design based on stick figures used as location symbols of bathrooms.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/static/history/alsj/a15/drsmemo20210903.pdf|access-date=May 23, 2024|date=September 3, 2021|first=David R.|last=Scott|author-link=David Scott|publisher =[[NASA]]|title=Memorandum for the Record}}</ref>

==Placement on the Moon==
Astronaut [[David Scott]] secretly placed the ''Fallen Astronaut'' statue on the Moon during the [[Apollo 15]] mission, near the completion of his work on August 2, 1971, along with a plaque bearing the names of eight American astronauts and six Soviet cosmonauts who had died in service:

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:left;"
|+Astronauts and cosmonauts named on the ''Fallen Astronaut'' plaque<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28921156/hartford_courant/|title=2 Added Moonshots Called for by Scott|agency=Associated Press|location=Hartford, Connecticut|newspaper=[[Hartford Courant]]|date=August 13, 1971|page=5|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
!Name !! Date !! Cause
|-
|data-sort-value="Freeman, Theodore"|[[Theodore Freeman|Theodore C. Freeman]] || October 31, 1964 || align=center|Aircraft accident
|-
|data-sort-value="Bassett, Charles"|[[Charles Bassett|Charles A. Bassett II]] || rowspan=2|February 28, 1966 || align=center rowspan=2|[[1966 NASA T-38 crash|Aircraft accident]]
|-
|data-sort-value="See, Elliot"|[[Elliot See|Elliot M. See Jr.]]
|-
|data-sort-value="Grissom, Virgil"|[[Gus Grissom|Virgil I. Grissom]] || rowspan=3|January 27, 1967 ||align=center rowspan=3 |[[Apollo 1]] fire
|-
|data-sort-value="Chaffee, Roger"|[[Roger B. Chaffee]]
|-
|data-sort-value="White, Edward"|[[Ed White (astronaut)|Edward H. White II]]
|-
|data-sort-value="Komarov, Vladimir"|[[Vladimir Komarov|Vladimir M. Komarov]] || April 24, 1967 || align=center|[[Soyuz 1]] re-entry parachute failure
|-
|data-sort-value="Givens, Edward"|[[Edward Givens|Edward G. Givens Jr.]] || June 6, 1967 || align=center|Automobile accident
|-
|data-sort-value="Williams, Clifton"|[[Clifton Williams|Clifton C. Williams Jr.]] || October 5, 1967 || align=center|Aircraft accident
|-
|data-sort-value="Gagarin, Yuri"|[[Yuri Gagarin|Yuri A. Gagarin]] || March 27, 1968 || align=center|[[Death of Yuri Gagarin|Aircraft accident]]
|-
|data-sort-value="Belyayev, Pavel"|[[Pavel Belyayev|Pavel I. Belyayev]] || January 10, 1970 || align=center|Illness
|-
|data-sort-value="Dobrovolsky, Georgiy"|[[Georgy Dobrovolsky|Georgiy T. Dobrovolsky]] || rowspan=3|June 30, 1971 || align=center rowspan=3|[[Soyuz 11]] re-entry<br>pressurization failure
|-
|data-sort-value="Patsayev, Viktor"|[[Viktor Patsayev|Viktor I. Patsayev]]
|-
|data-sort-value="Volkov, Vladislav"|[[Vladislav Volkov|Vladislav N. Volkov]]
|}

Scott photographed the memorial but waited for a post-mission press conference to disclose its existence. He noted, "Sadly, two names are missing, those of [[Valentin Bondarenko]] and [[Grigori Nelyubov]]."<ref>{{harvnb|Leonov|Scott|2013|p=313}}</ref> He explained that the Western world was unaware of their deaths because of the secrecy surrounding the Soviet space program at the time. Also missing was [[Robert Henry Lawrence Jr.]], the first black astronaut and a U.S. Air Force officer selected for the [[Manned Orbiting Laboratory]] program who was killed in a training accident in 1967.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/7018497/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141111013943/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/7018497 | url-status=dead | archive-date=November 11, 2014 |title=The Unsung Astronaut |last=Oberg |first=James |work=[[NBC News]] |date=2005-02-23 |access-date=2016-01-20}}</ref>

==Controversy==
[[File:Brief Jan Stalmans - Paul Van Hoeydonck 11-09-2007.jpg|thumb|Query from Jan Stalmans to Van Hoeydonck about the number of outstanding replicas, with handwritten reply]]

During their press conference, the crew disclosed the statuette's existence and the [[National Air and Space Museum]] requested that a replica be made for public display. The crew agreed that it be displayed "with good taste and without publicity".  They gave the replica to the [[Smithsonian Institution]] on April 17, 1972, the day after CBS anchorman [[Walter Cronkite]] referred to the ''Fallen Astronaut'' and plaque as the first art installation on the Moon during the broadcast of the Apollo 16 launch.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A19860035000| title=Sculpture, Fallen Astronaut| work=si.edu| access-date=December 20, 2013| archive-date=April 5, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160405050937/http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A19860035000| url-status=dead}}</ref>

In May 1972, Scott learned that Van Hoeydonck planned to make and sell more replicas. He believed this would violate the spirit of their agreement and of NASA's policy against commercial exploitation of the space program, and he tried to persuade Van Hoeydonck to refrain. In July 1972, Van Hoeydonck placed a full-page advertisement in ''[[Art in America]]'' magazine<ref>{{cite news |last1=Haugland |first1=Vern |author-link1=Vernon Arnold Haugland |title=Space Agency Deplores Sale Of High-Price Moon Statues |newspaper=[[The San Bernardino Sun]] |date=22 July 1972 |volume=26 |issue=30 |pages=1–2 |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SBS19720722.1.1&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1 |agency=Associated Press |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}}</ref><ref>[http://www.check-six.com/lib/Fallen_Astros.htm Check-Six.com – ''Fallen Astronaut''] – includes copy of July 1972 ''Art in America'' ad</ref> offering 950 replicas of ''Fallen Astronaut'' signed by the sculptor, sold by the Waddell Gallery of New York for $750 each,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.collectspace.com/resources/flown_a15_articlescarried.html |title=NASA News Release 72-189 |publisher=Collectspace.com |access-date=2013-04-29}}</ref> a second edition at a lower, unspecified price, and a catalog edition at $5.<ref>{{Cite news
  | last = Wieck
  | first = Paul
  | title = Anderson Will Probe Unauthorized Sales
  | newspaper = Albuquerque Journal
  | page = 16
  | date = 25 July 1972
  | url = http://www.newspaperarchive.com/PdfViewerTags.aspx?img=61583928&currentResult=1
}}</ref> Van Hoeydonck retracted his permission for the replicas after receiving complaints from NASA, but not before one was sold. Using a box numbered 200/950 and prepared for the limited edition, a sample figure was sold to a [[Morgan Stanley]] investment banker who collected space artifacts and works of art. Van Hoeydonck verified the sale following an investigation that began in 2015 when the piece surfaced on [[eBay]]. It was bought by a collector living in the UK.<ref>{{harvnb|Van den Bussche|1980|pp=16–17}}</ref>

On September 11, 2007, art journalist Jan Stalmans asked Van Hoeydonck how many replicas existed. Van Hoeydonck returned a handwritten response on the letter that 50 copies had been made, most of which were still in his possession unsigned.<ref name="Slate" />

== Replicas ==
In January 2019, Van Hoeydonck and Apollo 15 Command Module Pilot [[Al Worden]] announced the sale of a limited edition replica inside a blue acrylic block, as Van Hoeydonck originally intended, which would have allowed the statue to be placed upright on the Moon to "symbolize humanity rising" via space travel. NASA had rejected the acrylic enclosure's inclusion on the flight as a fire hazard. A smaller number of enlarged sculptures are also to be sold.<ref>{{cite news|title='Fallen Astronaut' artist offers original idea 'Man in Space' statuettes|first=Philip|last=Corneille|date=February 1, 2019|url=http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-020119a-fallen-astronaut-hoeydonck-statuette.html|publisher=collectSPACE|access-date=February 6, 2019}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[List of artificial objects on the Moon]]
* [[List of extraterrestrial memorials]]
* [[List of spaceflight-related accidents and incidents]]
* [[Space Mirror Memorial]]

==References==
;Specific
{{reflist|30em}}

;General
* {{cite magazine |first1=Corey S. |last1=Powell |first2=Laurie Gwen |last2=Shapiro |date=December 16, 2013 |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/12/sculpture_on_the_moon_paul_van_hoeydonck_s_fallen_astronaut.html |magazine=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]|title=The Sculpture on the Moon}}
* {{cite news |url= http://archives.lesoir.be/serie-5-7-il-y-a-40-ans-le-premier-pas-sur-la-lune_t-20090717-00P3K0.html|title=Une œuvre d'art sur la Lune ? Quelle extraordinaire galerie ! Quelle fascinante cimaise ! Quel rêve inaccessible |first1= Christian|last1=du Brulle|first2= Jean-Claude|last2=  Vantroyen|first3= Pierre|last3=  Maury |journal= Le Soir|language= fr |date=17 July 2009 |access-date=20 December 2013|ref={{harvid|Le Soir|17 July 2009}}}}
* {{cite book | last = Van den Bussche | first =Willy | title = Paul van Hoeydonck | publisher = Lannoo | location = Tielt | date = 1980 | isbn = 90-209-0885-5 }}
* {{cite book | first1 = Alexei | last1 = Leonov | first2 = David | last2 = Scott | title = Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race | publisher =  [[Thomas Dunne Books]] | year = 2013 | isbn = 978-1480449237 }}

==External links==
{{commons category|Fallen Astronaut plaque and sculpture}}
* [http://www.milgo-bufkin.com/Gallery/Sculpture/sculptfab213.html Sculpture fabricated at Milgo / Bufkin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120313182515/http://www.milgo-bufkin.com/Gallery/Sculpture/sculptfab213.html |date=March 13, 2012 }}
* [http://www.collectspace.com/resources/flown_a15_articlescarried.html Transcript of NASA News Release 72-189 (September 15, 1972), describing the origin of ''Fallen Astronaut'' and the subsequent controversy]
* [http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/12/sculpture_on_the_moon_paul_van_hoeydonck_s_fallen_astronaut.html Slate article "Sculpture on the Moon"]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061005080024/http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/luceneweb/fullimage.jsp?photoId=AS15-88-11894 Official NASA photo of ''Fallen Astronaut'' on the Moon]
* [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a15/a15.clsout3.html Apollo 15 Lunar Surface Journal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190721181824/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a15/a15.clsout3.html |date=July 21, 2019 }}
* [http://obsart.blogspot.fr/2012/12/fallen-astronaut-1972.html Observatoire du Land Art (transcript of the book ''Goden & Astronaut'', Banana Press, 1972 (statement, articles, photos))]
* [http://paulvanhoeydonck.com Von Hoeydonck's website]
* [http://www.whitfordfineart.com/artists/37-paul-van-hoeydonck/ Paul Van Hoeydonck works at Whitford Fine Art]
* [http://www.art-gallery.be/en/artist/VAN+HOEYDONCK+Paul See some works of Paul Van Hoeydonck]

{{Apollo program hardware|state=expanded}}
{{NASA space program}}
{{Apollo program}}
{{Sculptures}}

[[Category:1971 sculptures]]
[[Category:1971 on the Moon]]
[[Category:1972 controversies in the United States]]
[[Category:Aluminium sculptures]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1971]]
[[Category:Apollo 1]]
[[Category:Apollo 15]]
[[Category:Collection of the Smithsonian Institution]]
[[Category:Death in art]]
[[Category:Exploration of the Moon]]
[[Category:Message artifacts]]
[[Category:Monuments and memorials]]
[[Category:Monuments and memorials to explorers]]
[[Category:Outdoor sculptures]]
[[Category:Posthumous recognitions]]
[[Category:Monuments and memorials to Yuri Gagarin]]
[[Category:David Scott]]
[[Category:Gus Grissom]]
[[Category:Ed White (astronaut)]]
[[Category:Astronauts in art]]