Blue Origin launches artwork, moon-landing test into space

Blue Origin has launched artwork painted on a capsule and a moon-landing navigation experiment for NASA into space

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Blue Origin launched artwork painted on a capsule and a moon-landing navigation experiment into space Thursday, a month after sending founder Jeff Bezos on the company’s first passenger flight. No one was aboard for Thursday's 10-minute flight, which included other experiments from NASA and others. The paintings by Ghana artist Amoako Boafo were on three parachute panels on the outside of the capsule at the very top. Boafo painted a self-portrait as well as portraits of his mother and a friend’s mother, explaining “a mother's love comes from a place that is out of this world," said Blue Origin launch commentator Kiah Erlich, a company official. Schoolchildren from Ghana tuned into the launch webcast, according to Blue Origin. The Utah-based Uplift Aerospace Inc. commissioned Boafo's work, “Suborbital Triptych", as part of its new art-in-space program.