23 great space missions, all on one t-shirt

I really like this tshirt by chopshop: silhouettes of 23 of the world's great space missions. $5 of each $23 t-shirt price is donated to The Planetary Society.

23 historic missions in total (with an additional 6 separations) that are recognized for their notable achievements to various celestial bodies in our solar system with targets including the Sun, planets and their moons, comets and asteroids. Nearly every icon represents a specific robotic explorer (or series) with the exception of the Apollo program which continues to be the single human endeavor to ever go beyond the cradle.

If you buy a copy we will donate $5 of every purchase to The Planetary Society. The world's largest space-interest group dedicated to inspiring the public with the adventure and mystery of space exploration. A non-governmental organization founded in 1980, who among its founders included Carl Sagan, the author of Cosmos.

Link to t-shirt sizing and purchase page.

(via the BB Submitterator)

• [Anonymous]

  Where’s the Enterprise?

• [gwailo_joe]

  OK. . .nice shirt. But where’s the key?

  If I’m going to wear a shirt with ‘the 23 historic missions recognized for their notable achievements to various celestial bodies’ on it, I want to be able to point to the damn spacecraft and say who built it, when they did it and where the hell it went!

  This being 2010 and all, I would have liked to see an info graph pop-up as I move my lil’ arrow over each spacecraft. . .

  But as a relatively old-school person technologically, I will accept a cardboard tag with the pertinent data tied to the shirt.

  In the unlikely event that someone would say ‘hey bro, what’s that shirt all about?’; I’d need to school them with ‘Don’t you KNOW?! This shit is historic and notable! See these solar panels: late ’80s/ early ’90s US. . .those bent antennae? Obviously late 50′s Soviet. . .Hello??? Get with the (space) program chump.’

  But unless I know the skinny. . .I ain’t gonna buy one.

  • [robulus]

    OK. . .nice shirt. But where’s the key?

    Don’t you KNOW?! This shit is historic and notable! See these solar panels: late ’80s/ early ’90s US. . .those bent antennae? Obviously late 50′s Soviet. . .Hello??? Get with the (space) program chump.

    • [gwailo_joe]

      Shot me with my own gun!!

      So we agree one should know what’s-what to wear the shirt. . .I guess I just don’t have the credentials. -Sob-

      (But that kind of knowledge is. . .? 1 in 100? No way. Ask 100 people downtown and someone will say ‘hey, ain’t that the spaceship from that movie?’ but the majority, come on. Maybe 1 out of a thousand. Maybe.)

      So it must be one of those Limited Edition type shirts. . .But is not the point to sell them to make money to inspire. . . and educate?

• [EH]

  You people are weird. The only thing I can see when I look at the design is the Sinistar dude.

• [bassplayinben]

  Galileo, Cassini, Viking, Mars Recon Orbiter, Mars Exploration Rover, Sojourner, Pioneer 10 & 11, Voyager 1 & 2, Venera, Apollo, Mars Phoenix, New Horizons, Mariner, Dawn… 17/23 not too shabby.

  • [kelvinc]

    More specifically, Venera 4 north of Sol, and Venera 9 west of Sol.

    I first thought MESSENGER was Mariner 10. It’s actually quite amazing how much of a boom there’s been in planetary exploration: growing up in the 80s and 90s, I read a lot about the old days of the Voyager and Viking missions, but at that time there was very little interesting happening. Now there are so many missions that I don’t actually recognize a lot of the silouettes without Googling or Wikipedia, like Dawn and Phoenix.

    I also seem to remember a lot of failed or cancelled missions. Thought Phoenix was Beagle 2, and New Horizons was Pluto Express.

    I wish they had put Stardust in there.

• [Narual]

  Is that bottom one a Dalek?

• [moop2000]

  I have to admit, I am disappointed in myself that I only recognize a handful of them. They should release flash cards! :)

• [efergus3]

  And no Discovery One? That went out to Jupiter.

• [Anonymous]

  And no Luna 3? (the first probe to photograph the far side of the moon)

• [chopshop]

  So here is the thing… they are all deep space which means beyond Earth orbit. That would exclude your sputniks and shuttles, etc. Lunar is deep space, however… there were so many of those that I figured Apollo sort of smashes all of those and there is only so much room. Besides, most Lunar probes were designed to pave the way for Apollo.

  A few mentions here of other probes, but I assume they are science fiction. Any Probes to venture to or past Jupiter is on here — Including the duplicate Voyager and Pioneer missions and even the solar observing Ulysses which just ceased operations recently.

  I wanted to get Stardust in there but ran our of inner solar system space. It was hard balancing out the key inner missions with the drought of outer planet missions. Also notably missing is Mars Express, Mariners that went to Mercury and Venus and Magellan especially should have been on there.

  • [necoro]

    I ordered this as soon as I saw it here, and it arrived yesterday. I like it.

    So… is there a key somewhere? ;)
    I’m a pretty big space geek but some of these confound me.

• [Phikus]

  What!?! No Sputnik!?!

• [chopshop]

  “ No Sputnik!?!”

  Only probes that went beyond Earth. Hence the title. The Soviet Veneras are on there. 2 of them actually.

  • [Phikus]

    Ok, so I guess Earth’s orbit is not considered “space” technically, but I wouldn’t want to be there without breathing apparatus.

• [gwailo_joe]

  my, my. . .you can learn a whole lot on these here internets.

  My favorite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguard_1

  (I bought the shirt :)

• [efergus3]

  Hmmmm, don’t see the Jupiter 2 or Zefram Cochrane’s Phoenix.