We Have Lift Off!

September sees our first Artist’s Spotlight shine on our talented current Year 8s. Our new display in the Oakview exhibition space presents the collaborative portraits created during the Summer Term by each Year 7 class.

Featuring Helen Sharman, Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong the portraits are made up from 25 individually painted squares by each member of the class.

Taking inspiration from David Hockney’s joiners and Chuck Close’s detailed pencil portraits, the work on display pays homage to the 50th anniversary of the moon landing held on the 20th July this year.

It was on 16th July 1969, that astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Four days later, while Collins orbited the Moon, Armstrong and Aldrin landed Apollo 11’s lunar module, Eagle, becoming the first humans to set foot on the lunar surface.

Now embarking on her new mission as a Year 8 pupil, Rebecca said “There were a lot of squares to create! Some people worked on more than one and we started by working on a small scale and then sizing them up.” Rebecca continued to explain that creating art on this scale had been a new experience, in which she enjoyed being able to collaborate with peers on the project.

The portraits on show have added importance to the community here at Leighton Park, with Helen Sharman, the first Briton in space, having opened our very own David Linday building in 1993. After responding to a radio advertisement asking for applicants to be the first British space explorer, Sharman was selected for the mission live on ITV, on 25th November 1989, ahead of nearly 13,000 other applicants. The programme was known as Project Juno and was a cooperative Soviet Union-British mission co-sponsored by a group of British companies.

Before flying, Sharman spent 18 months in intensive flight training in Star City. With the space race as relevant now as it was then, Helen Sharman remains an icon for young women aspiring to work in technology and aerospace. Who knows what the future holds for space exploration, as the notion of civilians in space becomes ever more tangible.

Another role model for the School, Yuri Gagarin was the first person to fly in space. His flight, on April 12, 1961, lasted 108 minutes as he circled the Earth for a little more than one orbit in the Soviet Union’s Vostok spacecraft. Following the flight, Gagarin became a cultural hero in the Soviet Union. Even today, more than six decades after the historic flight, Gagarin is widely celebrated in Russian space museums, with numerous artefacts, busts and statues displayed in his honour.

Since Yuri Gagarin’s first trip, a total of 563 people have gone to space. In total 12 astronauts have walked on the moon, including Armstrong and Aldrin. The other ten who made it to the moon took part in five further NASA launches, between 1969 and 1972.

Last but not least, we honoured Neil Armstrong who joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in the second group, which was selected in 1962. He made his first spaceflight as command pilot of Gemini 8 in March 1966, becoming NASA’s first civilian astronaut to fly in space. On 20th July 1969, Armstrong, and Apollo 11 Lunar Module pilot, Buzz Aldrin became the first people to land on the Moon and journey into history, and the next day they spent two and a half hours outside the spacecraft.

When Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface, he famously said: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” We hope the new display can inspire future space explorers and spark interest into what might become a civilian reality in the coming years.