Nasa Stickers

(2014)

This spring my father moved out of his house of 15 years.  I lived there during high school, and a few brief times since.  My littler brother, on the other hand, has never known another home.  When we moved into the house in May of 1999, these NASA Mission stickers were on the wall in what would become my father’s office / den / drum room.  I am not sure who put them there, and I do not know how long they have been affixed to the wall.  I’ve always noticed them in the past, but now as I anticipate my father’s relocation, I can’t help but wonder about the fate of these Apollo stickers, while also marveling with a newfound interest at what they represent.

Upon closer inspection, these NASA stickers (Apollo Missions 7-16) indicate so much.  For instance, the Apollo 8 sticker depicts the first manned flight to the moon.  The image is in the shape of the Command Module used by the astronauts, and the predominant figure ‘8’ in the image shows the flight path from the earth to the moon and back again.  This was the first time humans had ever been to the moon.  The Apollo 9 image displays the Command Module and the Lunar Module in orbit around the Earth.  This was the first mission to test the Lunar Module, setting up the show for the Apollo 11 moon landing.  

These stickers may have inspired a young fan of the Apollo program, instilling him/her to stick them on a wall in our future house.  Or they may have just been space fillers on an otherwise blank side of a room.  However they came to be, it is a wonder they are still around.  Some parts are missing, scraped, scratched, and peeled off.  Yet they remain.  I can only hope the next homeowner finds the same aesthetic and historical beauty in them as I do, and chooses to let them remain, a testament to the enduring wonder of Nasa's Apollo Program.