Astronaut poster boys

Are astronauts serious-minded? Certainly on a professional level! But they also know how to have fun with their image to promote their mission.
Manned space flights involve tens of thousands of people distributed between the space agency concerned and industrial contractors. NASA quickly encountered a problem at the start of the space age: how to motivate employees with very different profiles, geographically distributed over the vast area of the United States who would not necessarily have the opportunity to meet with the crew? The response is the programme known as Space Flight Awareness which, in the agency’s own words «is designed to ensure that every employee involved in manned space flights is aware of the importance of his or her role in terms of astronaut safety and success of the mission ». The purpose of one of the many initiatives based on this principle was to create a link between the « little helpers » of the space industry and the astronauts via posters which were much more creative than the usual austere official documentation. Some of the posters, a total take on famous films (in this example, Harry Potter), dotted around all over the place, at NASA and in the workshops of industrial contractors, each remind all those involved that they are working to ensure the safety of those who will be going into space.

Discover other posters in this portfolio.

Published on 2 June 2009