2007 photo: Man in Space, Glass Mosaic at PS 9, Manhattan, Vincent Cavallaro, 1965  Scientific Observations From Art  Astrophysics: The angled shape to the right of Earth could be Earth's shadow made by the Sun. The position of the sun would be directly left in the mosaic, as indicated by the side of the Moon that is lit up. If this were true, then the orbital position of the moon would be in total lunar eclipse and the bright side shown in the mosaic would actually be dark. One might surmise that the angled shadow to the right of Earth is an umbra (conical in shape). If it were, it would be darker, not lighter. The gold color, surrounding Earth's atmosphere (black), may signify a planetary gravitational field. The angled shape going into Earth (from an apparent sun, off to the left) becomes bright as it nears the gravitational field. From an astrophysical perspective, this is misleading because light moving through space is invisible unless one is looking straight at the source. Only when light hits a scattering medium — the atmosphere, for instance — will it then render aglow the medium itself.  Space Exploration: The launch vehicle shown in the mosaic is a black, three-stage rocket. The U.S. never designed black rockets that were non-military. Even Sputnik was polished aluminium and its launch vehicle was white. The actual parachutes used for Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo had red and white stripes. Mercury used one parachute, Gemini two, and Apollo three – corresponding to the number of occupants. The capsule in the mosaic is from Project Mercury, but Cavallaro depicted it (incorrectly) upside down. The parachute deploys from the nose, not the rear, forcing the wide end to make first contact with the ocean. The fact that the capsule is close to splashdown (indicated by the wavy lines) means it is a U.S. capsule, not Soviet. The Soviet capsules landed on the ground. Astronauts never orbited pole to pole, as implied by the mosaic. The white dot on Earth marks Cape Canaveral, Florida. The blockhouse (lower left), typically used in all early space flights for emergency rescue and monitoring, resembles the one located at Pad LC-5, the launch site of the Mercury-Redstone 3 Mission that took America's first astronaut, Alan Shepard, into outer space May 5, 1961.[2]  Inverting colors in mosaic is a common practice, especially when trying to convey light reflections and shadows within the limitations of color medium. Inverting physical shapes, such as the capsule hanging upside-down from the parachute perhaps appealed aesthetically to the artist, given the "V" shaped cone that the capsule is falling into. Mosaics rarely are seen as technical depictions.  The white dot also gives an impression of a catch light of an eye, a desirable highlight in portrait photography and anime. The black surrounding the Earth, presumably the atmosphere, is suggestive of the iris of an eye.  — Observations of Neil deGrasse Tyson, PhD, August 7, 2007  
 First get your facts straight, and then distort them at your leisure. — Neil deGrasse Tyson, PhD, paraphrasing Mark Twain in jest over artists who are inspired by the cosmos.
Man in Space, glass mosaic, PS 9, Manhattan, NYC Mural: Photograph: