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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2012
Meet the afronauts: Hilarious pictures of infamous Zambian space programme
T
hese cheeky pictures were produced to celebrate the infamous Zambian space programme of the 1960s, which never quite took off. In 1964, at the very height of the Space Race, Zambian grade-school science teacher Edward Makuka Nkoloso announced he was creating a national space programme. He claimed he would beat both the Soviets and the United States by launching a rocket that would send twelve astronauts and ten cats to Mars. Nkoloso set up a training facility seven miles away from the capital Lusaka, where the volunteers dressed in overalls and British army helmets, took turns climbing into a 44 gallon oil drum and being rolled down a hill bouncing over rough ground. Another part of the training involved clipping their rope-swings at the height of their arc to simulate weightlessness. According to Nkoloso, these exercises would train the men in the
feeling of weightlessness in both space travel and re-entry. He wrote an editorial for a newspaper din which he revealed how he had asked Unesco for a £7,000,000 grant for his space program, and how he had instructed the missionaries not to force Christianity onto the native Martian inhabitants if they didn’t want it. Unfortunately the funds from Unesco were not forthcoming and to make matters worse, one of the astronauts, a 17-year-old dubbed ‘spacegirl’ got pregnant and was taken away by her parents. Spanish photographer Cristina De Middel’s project, Afronauts, creates a fictional documentation of his efforts. The result is a fact-bending, visually striking fantasy that includes elephant-hugging astronauts, patterned space junk, weightless cats and an engineer day-dreaming at a rusted control panel. Source: Dailymail.co.uk
All smiles: Bashar and Asma Assad were shown packing up food boxes in a Damascus stadium.
Boldy going: An 'afronaut' models his helmet in one of shots to celebrate the ill-fated Zambian space programme of 1964
Mission control: Nkoloso asked Unesco for a £7,000,000 grant and instructed missionaries to not force Christianity onto the native Martian inhabitants if they didn't want it
Destination Mars: The brains behind the programme grade-school Edward Makuka Nkoloso pledged to launch a rocket that would send twelve astronauts and ten cats to Mars.
Target: Nkoloso claimed his country would not only beat both the Americans and Russians to the moon, but do it within a year.