Every single crewed mission to space — on one definitive map – Big Think
Future space cowboys and girls, stick this on your wall as you beat a path to the stars. This poster is a snapshot of humanity’s loftiest enterprise so far: making it off-planet. It maps Earth’s main spaceports, the landing sites on the Moon, the highest and farthest orbits traveled by us humans, and the spectacular array of suits and vehicles that got us there.
This poster is a thing that the site sells, but I’m not promoting it as such and you don’t have to buy it to get a look. If you click through to the article above, you’ll see something that I found pretty dramatic: every crewed space mission fits in one little graphic.
There’s a lot going on in this one image, but compared to any other form of human transportation, it really brings home how different space is.
Imagine a visual history of all US train rides since the driving of the Golden Spike in 1869, for example. Or even yesterday.
For me, that realization brings an extra bit of wonder to space flight.
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