Framed present from NASA (2006) featuring spacecraft images and U.K. flag flown to space

Framed present from NASA (2006) featuring spacecraft images and Framed present from NASA (2006) featuring spacecraft images and

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License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

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Framed present from NASA (2006) featuring spacecraft images and
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Framed present from NASA (2006) featuring spacecraft images and
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

framed commemorative NASA montage with UK and US flags and spacecraft imagery.

This montage was a present to Stephen Hawking during a visit to NASA in 2007. Such montages are usual gifts given by NASA representatives, and combine space imagery, items flown to space, and sometimes personalized details.

Among the variety of technical topics outside of Stephen Hawking's scientific expertise that make a presence in his office, the most prominent is spaceflight. Hawking was a very abstract theoretician, but his two most important scientific predictions depended heavily on astronomical observations that could only be conducted outside the Earth's atmosphere. Less than a decade after his dissertation, a NASA x-ray satellite detected the first signal strongly suspected to be a black hole. Through the 1970s and 1980s, rockets and satellites reached into space to measure and image the cosmic microwave background radiation, and continued to improve this map to compare with models of the Big Bang including those proposed by Hawking. Stephen championed space exploration as fundamental to the future of the human species and had public opinions on topics such as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intellicence. Since the 2000s, Stephen also saw the possibility of visiting outer space within his lifetime and was courted by a variety of agencies, entrepreneurs and celebrities advocating for human spaceflight.

Details

Category:
Stephen Hawking Office
Collection:
Stephen Hawking’s Office
Object Number:
2021-561/423
Materials:
paper (fibre product), wood (unidentified) and glass
Measurements:
overall: 515 mm x 618 mm x 29 mm, 1.64 kg
type:
awards and frame - furnishing
credit:
Accepted in lieu of Inheritance Tax by H M Government from the Estate of Stephen Hawking and allocated to the Science Museum, 2021