Cognitive Surplus: Apollo 11 TLC Star Chart Print Poster

Since the time of the earliest explorers, we have used the heavenly bodies to navigate the globe. For Apollo 11’s voyage to the moon, the stars were used in conjunction with an onboard guidance system to direct the spacecraft onto and away form the lunar surface. To determine their location, an astronaut would optically locate a star and input the code from the chart into the system, which would calculate the position of the spacecraft. This particular chart was used for the TLC (Trans Lunar Coast) – the portion of the journey that took the astronauts to the moon.

Three stars on this chart are unique, as they were named by Gus Grissom in honor of his Apollo 1 crew members. Star #3 “Navi” (his own middle name, Ivan, spelled backwards), star #17 “Regor” (Roger for Roger Chaffee spelled backwards), and star #20 Dnoces (Second spelled backwards for Ed White II). As a tribute to these astronauts, who subsequently died in a training accident, NASA left the names on the charts.

Printed in metallic gold and cyan on Nightshift Blue French Paper.

Dimensions: 12″ x 24″
100% recycled paper
Handmade in the USA