The First Civilian Artist In Space

“Najjar was inspired to reach space after climbing Mount Aconcagua, the world’s second-highest peak. ‘I was looking out over the whole sweeping range of the Andes, when suddenly a Swiss Air Boeing 747 from Santiago passed just over my head and moved on its way through the deep blue sky,’ Najjar writes in his photo book. ‘It was completely surreal. And at this moment I thought, you’ve gotta go one step further; you’ve gotta go into space.'”