light made solid

The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center has unveiled a stained glass tribute to the 17 astronauts whose lives were lost. The artwork's design memorializes the men and women whose lives were lost in the 1967 Apollo 1 pad fire and the in-flight accidents that occurred during space shuttles Challenger and Columbia's 1986 and 2003 final missions.

Etched into the top of the glass are the names of the 17 fallen astronauts.

Central in the glass's focus is an astronaut posed with outstretched arms and legs, reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. Surrounding "him" are planets and galaxies, as well as a Saturn IB rocket and space shuttle launching towards the heavens.