The announcement of the selection of the Ars Ad Astra art work to stay on the Mir was
communicated during a live transmission from orbit organized by ESA which
took place as the Mir passed over the Euro Space Center in Transinne,
Belgium on November 30, 1995.
This "link-up" event was attended by most of
the 20 artists.
"Since, in the long run, every planetary civilization will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring--not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive... If our long-term survival is at stake, we have a basic responsibility to our species to venture to other worlds."
Carl Sagan