A
specially made flag is flying on board Space
Shuttle Atlantis (STS-104), imprinted with
renowned space artist Robert McCall’s work,
titled “Opening the Space Frontier, The Next
Giant Step.” The artwork depicts the theme of
next year’s 18th National Space Symposium,
widely regarded as the premier conference for
space professionals anywhere in the world today.
The symposium is hosted by the Space Foundation,
and held each April at the Broadmoor Hotel in
Colorado Springs.
“We work very closely with NASA on a number of
education and public information initiatives,
and this was a great opportunity for us to
create a special keepsake honoring that
relationship,” said Space Foundation President
and CEO Elliot G. Pulham. “For just a few
ounces and a few cubic inches of payload space,
NASA has helped create something for us that we
are going to treasure for a long, long time.”
According to Pulham, NASA headquarters suggested
the idea during a meeting in Washington earlier
this year.
STS-104 is the latest International Space
Station Mission, which launched July 12 from
Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The five-
member crew has already completed the scheduled
installation of a joint airlock on the station,
giving station crewmembers the capability of
conducting space walks from the orbiting
laboratory and facilitating further
installations. The 10-day flight is scheduled
to land July 23 at KSC.
After returning to Earth, the flag will first be
displayed at Space Foundation headquarters in
Colorado Springs; then at the Foundation’s
International Space Symposium on October 29-31,
2001 in Washington, DC; and ultimately, at the
18th National Space Symposium, scheduled for
April 8-11, 2002 in Colorado Springs. More
information on the Space Foundation and its
programs can be found at http://www.spacefoundation.org
