"The United States ended the space shuttle program in 2011, after the ISS was complete. We gave up a national treasure forever." — Leroy Chiao, Ph.D. Astronaut
NASA inspired Space Shuttle illustration by Oktopolis: The Art of Brian Miller
Do you love the Space Shuttle? Of course you do. We all have a story that connects us with the NASA Space Shuttle program. Here is mine.
As a boy I grew up watching re-runs of Star Trek on TV and like most American kids if I wasn't already interested in space exploration after watching the adventures of the starship Enterprise I certainly was after Star Wars was released in theaters. It seemed like all of America was looking toward the stars. I would build model kits of Apollo era rockets as well as the famous ships from Star Trek and Star Wars. Then it happened, NASA showed off the first Space Shuttle and named it Enterprise.
After years of testing Space Shuttle Enterprise NASA launched Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981. Watching those early Shuttles blast-off was an amazing site. The first manned spacecraft to be able to launch, orbit, land back on Earth, and then do it all over again. To a small kid in middle America it seemed just as incredible as anything Like Skywalker or James T. Kirk had ever accomplished. Even more so, because this was real.
Over the years more shuttles would come including Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. Between 1981 and 2011 a total of 135 Space Shuttle missions were flown, all launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The final flight of the Space Shuttle program was by Space Shuttle Atlantis on July 8, 2011
The Process started with a grayscale comp that evolved into the final color design. The illustration was created using Adobe Illustrator Draw on Apple iPad Pro using the Apple Pencil. Then the artwork was exported to Adobe Photoshop where the typography and halftone patters were composited with the illustration and the final color separation was created. After being revealed via social media collectors wanted a version of the poster they could own.
These NASA inspired collectable art prints are exclusively available from Oktopolis.
illustration by Brian Miller © Oktopolis. All rights reserved. This artwork may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the prior written permission of Oktopolis.
