“Ten years before man landed on the moon, [artist Boris] Artzybasheff whimsically imagined what the moon would think seeing humans for the first time. I love the expressive look he captured out of craters and space dust.” – D.W. Pine, Creative Director of TIME

Imagining the moon with a personified satellite recording its every movement, Artzybasheff drew an out of this world terrestrial scene for the Jan. 19, 1959 cover on space exploration.

To survey and map the new, strange face of space, TIME correspondents interviewed leading astronomers for the latest news about the undiscovered lands that circle in the solar system and talked to astronauts for “instruction in the sailing directions of man’s new element.”

Artzybasheff was part of the golden age of TIME illustrated covers in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, called the

“ABCs” - Artzybasheff, Ernest Hamlin Baker and Boris Chaliapin. The trio produced 900 TIME covers and created a style that gave the publication character, strength and personality. Artzybasheff painted more than 200 covers from 1941 until his death in 1965.