First Men on the Moon by Chris Calle

Chris Calle is an artist who has designed more than 35 postage stamps for the United States and hundreds more for countries as diverse as Sweden and the Marshall Islands, as well as designs for the United Nations. Chris’s US postage stamp design work includes the two stamps in 1994 celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the first Moon Landing jointly designed with his father Paul Calle who designed the iconic First Man on the Moon stamp in 1969. Perhaps Chris’s most well known artwork is the $2.40 Priority Mail stamp design of 1989, which depicts Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planting the American flag on the Moon. During his 20+ years as an illustrator and today, much of his artwork is related to the theme of Space Exploration. As an official NASA artist, Chris covered two of the early Space Shuttle missions, producing artwork that is now in the collections of the National Air and Space Museum and NASA. In 1962 Chris’s father Paul Calle was one of the original 8 artists chosen by NASA to document the final mission of Project Mercury. Paul then covered the Gemini and Apollo programs. Chris is the author of Celebrating Apollo 11, the Artwork of Paul Calle, which details Calle’s involvement in the NASA Fine Art Program and focuses on the on- the-spot artwork Paul created as the only artist present during the suiting up of the Apollo 11 crew on their historic launch to the Moon.