When future generations (quite possibly on other planets) retell the story of the human race in the second half of the 20th century and the first half of the 21st, the exploration of space will surely constitute a major narrative thread.
It weaves not only in and out of global politics and advancements in all areas of technology (particularly warfare, environmentalism and communications) but also, importantly, through the poetic, imaginative consciousness of our species. As the artist Forrest Myers put it, “Darwinian evolution seemed to happen in fossil time, but seeing Man leave the Earth and step foot on the Moon was both instant and epic.”
This month, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch from Vandenburg Air Force Base, California, carrying Trevor Paglen’s sculpture Orbital Reflector. The ambitious work will join the small but distinguished category of astronautical art—that is, art not about space or which pictures it, but which is actually designed to enter space and exist there either temporarily or permanently.

Design concept rendering for “Trevor Paglen: Orbital Reflector” (2017), co-produced and presented by the Nevada Museum of Art. Courtesy of Trevor Paglen and Nevada Museum of Art.
Orbital Reflector is a satellite the size of a shoebox which will be ejected from the rocket along with 70 other shoeboxes (known in the industry as CubeSats) about 350 miles above the Earth. Compressed carbon dioxide canisters will then inflate a 100ft-long balloon made from a shiny plastic similar to Mylar, which will—if all goes according to plan—serenely orbit the Earth for a scheduled two months.
Paglen’s intention is to create a satellite whose purpose is not to look down at Earth or to look further out into space, as with almost every other satellite ever made, but to be seen. An app will enable viewers standing anywhere on the globe to see, at dusk—a comet-like point of light progressing across the night sky.
As the Orbital Reflector website puts it, Paglen’s $1.3m project—organized in collaboration with the Nevada Museum of Art—“could help to change the way we see our place in the world”. Indeed, this has arguable been an aim of all astronautical art. Here, we take a brief tour through some of the historical precedents for Paglen’s satellite.