Renowned American artist, Steve N. Barber, has announced plans to create a monumental sculpture in honour of U.S.-based Nigerian lawyer and astronaut, Owolabi Salis, who recently became the first Nigerian to travel beyond the K\u00e1rm\u00e1n line into space.\n<\/p>\n
Barber, internationally recognised for designing space-themed monuments, including tributes to astronauts and former U.S. President Donald Trump, revealed the project in a statement personally signed on Sunday.\n<\/p>\n
He described the planned monument as a lasting global tribute to Salis\u2019 groundbreaking achievements in space exploration and his role in projecting Nigeria\u2019s image on the world stage.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThis monument will be a global tribute to a man who not only broke new ground as a Nigerian in space but also raised Nigeria\u2019s profile in international scientific and aerospace circles,\u201d Barber said.<\/p>\n
PUNCH Online gathered that the monument, currently being designed in California, will feature engraved inspirational citations and is expected to be completed by July 4, 2026, America\u2019s Independence Day.\n<\/p>\n
Following its unveiling amid global media coverage, the sculpture will be transported to Salis\u2019 hometown of Ikorodu, Lagos State.\n<\/p>\n
Barber, who hopes to attract support from the Nigerian government, tech billionaire Jeff Bezos, or major corporate sponsors, said the structure is being built to last for at least 1,000 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t just about honouring one man, it\u2019s about inspiring millions,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n
Salis, a New York-based attorney and founder of Salis Law, has received widespread admiration since returning from space, particularly among Black Americans and Nigerians in the diaspora.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople walk up to me in restaurants and hotels, give me hugs, and ask for photographs. It\u2019s been overwhelming,\u201d Salis said in an interview.\n<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the rarity of space travel, he noted, \u201cOnly about 720 people in human history have been to space.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cConsidering that the Earth is around 5 billion years old and over 117 billion people have lived on it, this achievement is truly humbling.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Beyond his space mission, Salis also made history between January and July 2024 as the first Black African to visit both the Arctic and Antarctic within a single season, marking yet another milestone in global exploration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Renowned American artist, Steve N. Barber, has announced plans to create a monumental sculpture in honour of U.S.-based…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-57738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}