Stoned Moon: Lithograph prints of the Apollo 11

Local Means, 1970

In 1969 Rauschenberg participated in a project funded by NASA in which artists were invited to document the space program and moon landing. For his contribution Rauschenberg made a series of lithographs which were collectively titled "Stoned Moon." The title punned on both the medium of lithography (which involves printing with large flat stones) and the hippy ethos of the time. He sought to bridge a gap between the "free love" hippies and the militaristic jingoism often associated, at the time, with the space race.

As part of this project Rauschenberg got to experience the launch of the Apollo II rocket from Cape Canaveral. The intense spectacle of the launch had a profound effect on him which he documented in vivid, exuberant prose:

APOLLO 11 COVERED AND SHIMMERING IN ICE
SUNRISE BURNT THE NIGHT OUT OPENED THE WAY
TURNED THE SKY WHITE
WAITING
SINGLE FOCUS EXHAUSTION FROM EXPECTATION
...
WITHOUT PASSING THE TIME HAD COUNTED ITSELF OUT.
HALF NOT BELIEVING FROM OVERHOPE I STARED.
THE BIRD'S NEXT BLOOMED WITH FIRE AND CLOUDS.
SOFTLY, LARGELY AND SLOWLY AND SILENTLY

APOLLO 11 STARTED TO MOVE UP.
THEN IT ROSE BEING LIFTED ON LIGHT.
STANDING IN MID-AIR 11 BEGAN TO SING HAPPILY 
                                                                               LOUD

THEN IN IT'S OWN JOY WANTING THE EARTH TO KNOW IT WAS GOING,
SATURATED, SUPER-SATURATED AND SOLIDIFIED.
AIR WITH A SOUND THAT BECAME YOUR BODY.
FOR THAT WHILE EVERYTHING WAS THE SAME MATERIAL.
THERE WAS NO INSIDE, NO OUT.
POWER OVER POWER JOY PAIN ECSTASY THEN BODILY TRANSCENDING.
A STATE OF PURE ENERGY, APOLLO 11 WAS AIRBORNE,
LIFTING PULLING EVERYONE'S SPIRITS WITH IT
NOTHING WILL ALREADY BE THE SAME