It was the first, and to date the only, art object on the moon. The "Fallen Astronaut" came to the moon because the crew of the U.S. Apollo 15 space mission wanted to make a personal gesture in honor of the American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who had given their lives for the development of space exploration. David Scott, the commander of the mission, met Paul Van Hoeydonck. Scott knew that Van Hoeydonck used the theme of space travel in his art and discussed the idea of a sculpture with him. From this grew an agreement that Paul Van Hoeydonck would create a figurine to place on the moon.
Van Hoeydonck was given some design guidelines by David Scott. The figurine had to be light and sturdy and able to withstand the extreme temperature differences on the moon. Also, the figurine was to be genderless nor appear to belong to any particular ethnic group. Because David Scott did not want commercialization of space, Paul Van Hoeydonck's name would not be made public.
On August 2, 1971, David Scott placed a plaque on the moon at the end of the final spacewalk of the Apollo 15 mission. This contains the fourteen names of all the astronauts and cosmonauts known to have perished at the time.
Scott placed the "Fallen Astronaut" statue next to it in fallen state. It was also Scott who took the photograph of the statue and the plaque.
The tiny, figurine represents fallen astronauts and cosmonauts:
Charles A. Bassett II
Pavel I. Belyayev
Roger B. Chaffee
Georgi Dobrovolsky
Theodore C. Freeman
Yuri A. Gagarin
Edward G. Givens Jr.
Virgil I. Grissom
Vladimir Komarov
Viktor Patsayev
Elliot M. See Jr.
Vladislav Volkov
Edward H. White II,
Clifton C. Williams Jr.