Space Shuttle Atlantis

The Space Shuttle Atlantis fine art print by Benedict Redgrove is a limited-edition photographic work from the NASA Past and Present Dreams of the Future project, capturing the Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines of Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center in the kind of technical detail rarely seen outside NASA itself.

The Artist

Benedict Redgrove is a British artist whose NASA Past and Present Dreams of the Future project stands as one of the most ambitious photographic bodies of work ever produced on the American space program. Redgrove spent five years negotiating and building trust with NASA, followed by four years of photography and production, gaining unprecedented access to restricted spacecraft, labs, and facilities. He photographed priceless Apollo moon rocks inside the Lunar Samples Lab, watched the sun set behind the International Space Station from mission control, and entered the assembly rooms where the next generation of spacecraft are being built. His stated intention is emotional and spiritual: to reveal what these machines mean to us as human beings when we finally see them in fine detail.

The Piece

This work photographs Space Shuttle Atlantis and its Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, one of the most iconic propulsion systems in the history of human spaceflight. Redgrove shoots with technical cameras and digital backs, with some frames in the series composed of over sixty exposures stitched together to preserve the surface detail of every rivet, weld, and thermal tile. The result is a print that behaves less like a photograph and more like a document of the machine itself, engineered to hold up at wall scale and to reward close inspection. Fifty years of space exploration history, rendered as a single collectible image.

Specifications

• Artist: Benedict Redgrove
• Title: Space Shuttle Atlantis, Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 Engines
• Series: NASA Past and Present Dreams of the Future
• Location photographed: Kennedy Space Center, Florida
• Technique: Technical camera with digital back, multi-exposure composite (some frames over 60 exposures)
• Dimensions: 60 x 48 inches
• Format: Fine art print

Discover the full NASA by Benedict Redgrove Collection at TheArsenale.