Future Virgin Galactic astronaut captures ‘profound’ changes in space | British News
Huge advances are captured in a unique vision of space travel by an artist who has reserved a seat on a Virgin Galactic flight.
Michael Najjar has been involved in humanity’s ongoing missions to explore the solar system and conducted crewed missions on the moon before making his maiden voyage to Mars.
Traveling to space projects around the world, he has poured his experience into photographic art, showing the “essential” projects to gain a foothold at the ultimate frontiers.
The German photographer started his space collection in 2011 after capturing the last launch of the American space shuttle in Florida, which turned out to be a life-changing experience and inspired him to capture what he sees as humanity’s most important task .
He plans to be the first professional artist in space aboard SpaceShipTwo, which is due to begin commercial flights later in June after a final test run.
“We are witnessing a massive and profound shift in access to space,” Najjar said.
“Returning to the moon and establishing a permanent outpost there will happen in the next few years.”
“If we bring the first humans to Mars in the next decade, we will become a biplanetary species that will have a tremendous cultural impact on our civilization.” will begin to colonize our solar system in the coming centuries.”
Berlin-based Najjar is one of more than 700 Virgin Galactic Future astronauts reserved for the 90-minute flights. The final manned “assessment” is scheduled to take place ahead of the scheduled launch of Galactic 01, which will allow passengers to view Earth from the 300,000-foot apogee.
Najjar completed cosmonaut training at Star City in Russia, the German Space Center in Cologne, and the National Aerospace Training and Research Center in the US to prepare for the voyage and gain experience that will feed into his art, which he calls “hybrid photography”. designated. .
A HALO [high altitude] A 10,000m jump, a stratospheric flight in a MiG-29 jet and an underwater spacewalk in a heavy astronaut suit were all part of the hands-on experience.
The pioneer has also worked with national and private space companies, engineers, scientists, astronomers and space entrepreneurs at locations around the world.
“Space exploration and a greater presence in space are vital to humanity,” he said.
“Not only is it important to aim for Mars, new Earth observation technologies will also help us to better measure, visualize and understand the dramatic changes in our planet’s climate system.”
“The leap in civilization over the past 200 years is directly related to the use of fossil fuels and is now threatening our planetary future.”
“Exploring space can also help us develop new forms of sustainable energy and provide new resources.”
Three of Najjar’s acclaimed images – Gravitational Rotator, Rapid, and Orbital Ascension – are featured in an international summer exhibition at Saatchi Gallery titled Civilization: The Way We Live Now.
The gallery’s collection of more than 350 original prints in Chelsea, west London, focuses on the fast-changing life of humanity through the eyes of some of the world’s finest contemporary photographers. The 150 participants explore the complexities of the present and future advances.
Curator William A. Ewing said, “Photographers are everywhere, photographing everything, using their eyes and mind to capture meaningful moments in rapid change with sharp, vivid images.”
“Photographers are the eyes of our civilization… Ironically, many of these photographs may outlast the monuments and artifacts they depict.”
“London has always been a great center for the celebration of photography from all parts of the world, full of collections, archives, museums and galleries dedicated to the advancement of this vital art form.” We curators have had the privilege of working from numerous loans to benefit from these sources and are pleased to have been invited by the Saatchi Gallery to share the results of our research with a London audience.”
As the Virgin Galactic team’s flight window opens today, earthbound viewers can take a look at the gallery of humanity’s relentless quest for progress.
*The exhibition runs from June 2nd to September 17th, 2023. More information and tickets here
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