AstroCryptoTriviology

These three images are are different from the other thirty original paintings in this collection: they are photographs of paintings, not paintings themselves. Image #5 shows an overview of the MOL mission profile. Image #7 appears to be based on photographs taken in connection with the Titan III-C rocket test in November 1966 that carried several MOL payloads. The third, image 43,  shows the pilots wearing David Clark Co. G4C-style spacesuits, before the Hamilton Standard MH-5 suit was introduced, dating it from no earlier than late 1967. If all three are contemporaneous, they may be relics from an earlier portfolio of paintings begun in 1967 and meant to illustrate a MOL mission. It may be the project was interrupted, then resumed in 1968 when Jacobe had received additional technical information and artistic direction. That they were included in this collection--but only as photographs of paintings, not the paintings themselves--and with sequential numbers is testimony to their continued validity as the project resumed.

Note that this is only my inference based on their common features and their inclusion in this MOL collection. I will revise this page as warranted by new information.

This scenario begs several questions. What happened to the original paintings? Why were they lost but photographs of them were retained? Why was the portfolio interrupted, and then resumed later?