Astro Art of the Week #8: Space Shuttle Sketches

By Nancy Atkinson - August 31, 2009 at 8:48 AM UTC | Site News
shuttle21.jpg

[/caption] This week's Astro Art was submitted by Assi Süer, a 20 year-old amateur astronomer and astrophysics student from Sweden. She has been sketching and painting since she was young. Since space shuttle Discovery is now docked at the International Space Station for the STS-128 mission, Assi's sketches seemed fitting for this week, especially since her fellow Swede, Christer Fugelsang, is on board. "He has inspired me, and many more, to never give up," Assi said. "Even a Swede can become an astronaut, but only if we work hard for it. It is, of course, nothing wrong with Swedes, but it's hard for us because we're such a small part of the European Space Agency."

"'Failure is not an option' is my favorite quote," Assi said, "because failure definitely isn't an option for me, if I'm going to one day work for ESA, which is my dream. So I'm going to do everything to not fail."

Below is another of her sketches of space shuttles.

Assi shared that she would one day like to sketch and design Mars landers. You've got a great talent, Assi! Go for it!

Hear Assi on the

365 Days of Astronomy podcast from August 22

talking about astronomy for beginners.
[caption id="attachment_38731" align="aligncenter" width="407" caption="Shuttle sketches. Credit: Assi Suer"]

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com