AN UNSETTLED PEACE 245by the Lipton Company. In a creative series of images,
the noted illustrator George Zaffo visualized each
stage of the mission. Notice that Zaffo drew the earth
as it had been photographed from space, with swirling
atmospheric clouds slightly obscuring the terrain
and oceans below. In the final image he suggestively
pictured “future colonies” on the moon, capturing
the contemporary excitement and optimism over this
phenomenal mission.
The space program has been romanticized and
ridiculed, a source of both hope and scorn. Next to
the Panama Canal, it was the largest non-military
feat of engineering in American history. To be sure,
these missions were driven by the ongoing Cold War
and a breakneck effort to fulfill President Kennedy’s
pledge. But the sense of achievement was felt not
just in the US but around the world. Moreover,
these photographs and maps spawned a lasting
dialogue about the planet. Consider one measure
of that moment: in the 1940s and 1950s images
of the globe were often used to project power in a
world consumed by war. But after 1970 renderings
of the earth and the globe more often suggested
the interdependence of the world community, the
fragility of the earth, and a new level of attention
to the environment.