Fallen Astronaut is a 3.5-inch (8.9 cm) aluminum sculpture created by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck.
Fallen Astronaut (Astronaut yang Gugur) adalah sebuah patung aluminium berukuran 85-sentimeter (33 in) karya Paul Van Hoeydonck.
He finally relented under pressure from NASA, which had a strict policy against commercial exploitation of the US government space program.
Ia akhirnya menyerah pada tekanan NASA, yang memiliki kebijakan sangat ketat untuk mencegah program luar angkasa pemerintah AS dieksploitasi untuk tujuan komersial.
Before his Apollo 15 lunar mission, astronaut David Scott met Belgian painter and printmaker Paul Van Hoeydonck at a dinner party.
Sebelum misi Apollo 15, astronaut David Scott bertemu pelukis Belgia bernama Paul Van Hoeydonck di sebuah pesta.
They agreed that Van Hoeydonck would create a small statuette for Scott to place on the Moon, though their recollections of the details differ.
Mereka sepakat agar Van Hoeydonck membuat sebuah patung kecil untuk diletakkan Scott di Bulan, meskipun mereka tidak ingat betul detil kesepakatannya.
Scott's purpose was to commemorate those astronauts and cosmonauts who had died in the furtherance of space exploration.
Scott bermaksud mengenang para astronaut dan kosmonaut yang telah gugur dalam memajukan penjelajahan ruang angkasa,
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.
Van Hoeydonck mendapat sejumlah spesifikasi: patung itu harus ringan tapi kuat, dan mampu bertahan dalam suhu ekstrem di Bulan; tidak boleh jelas apakah pria atau wanita, atau dari etnis tertentu.
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.
Menurut Scott, disepakati bahwa nama Van Hoeydonck tidak akan diumumkan, untuk menghindari komersialisasi program luar angkasa pemerintah AS.
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.
Van Hoeydonck berpendapat lain: menurut wawancara dengan surat kabar Belgia Le Soir, patung itu harus mewakili umat manusia, bukan hanya astronaut yang gugur.
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.
Ia bersikukuh tidak tahu bahwa patung itu dimaksudkan untuk mengenang antariksawan yang gugur, dan bukan ia yang menamai patung tersebut; bahkan ia bermaksud membuat patung itu berdiri tegak.
Both his and Scott's versions of events are given in an article in Slate magazine in 2013.
Baik cerita versinya maupun versi Scott dimuat dalam majalah Slate tahun 2013.
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:
Dalam misi Apollo 15, menjelang berakhirnya tugas di permukaan Bulan pada 1 Agustus 1971, Scott diam-diam meletakkan Astronaut Yang Gugur di Bulan, bersama dengan plakat berisi delapan astronaut Amerika dan enam kosmonaut Soviet yang gugur dalam tugas:
Scott photographed the memorial but waited for a post-mission press conference to disclose its existence.
Scott memotret peringatan tersebut, tapi menunggu sampai konferensi pers pasca misi untuk mengumumkannya.
He noted, "Sadly, two names are missing, those of Valentin Bondarenko and Grigori Nelyubov."
Belakangan ia mengatakan "Sayang, ada dua nama yang terlewat (daalam plakat tersebut), yaitu Valentin Bondarenko dan Grigori Nelyubov."
He explained that the Western world was unaware of their deaths because of the secrecy surrounding the Soviet space program at the time.
Ia mengatakan, dunia barat tidak tahu tentang kematian mereka, karena program luar angkasa Soviet saat itu sangat dirahasiakan.
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, and Michael J. Adams, one of twelve pilots who flew the North American X-15 operated by the Air Force and NASA who died during a 1967 test flight above 50 miles.
Juga tidak ada nama Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., astronaut kulit hitam pertama dan perwira U.S. Air Force yang terpilih dalam program Manned Orbiting Laboratory dan tewas dalam kecelakaan latihan tahun 1967.