Gathering gray dust on the Moon is a small, aluminum sculpture lying face down on the lunar regolith. This position is but fitting since this tiny piece of art is the "Fallen Astronaut" memorial that commemorates the 14 astronauts and cosmonauts who lost their lives in the peaceful exploration of space up until August 1971.

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One of these astronauts who died in the Space Race was USAF Major Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr., the first African-American astronaut, who would most likely have gone on to join the Apollo program (and probably land on the Moon) were he not tragically killed in a training accident on Dec, 8, 1967.

No African-American astronaut has yet set foot on the Moon.

From 1983 to 2009, however, 14 African-American men and women have traveled into space. The first African-American to reach space was Guion Buford, who achieved this historic feat on Aug. 30, 1983 aboard the NASA space shuttle Challenger.

The astronauts of Apollo 15 also left behind a metal plaque with the names of the 14 fallen space travelers. For some inexplicable reason, the name of Maj. Lawrence isn't on that plaque.

Also left-off were the names of two Soviet cosmonauts (Valentin Bondarenko and Grigori Nelyubov) whose tragic deaths were kept secret up until the time the plaque was embedded onto the lunar soil.

In all, 17 astronauts and cosmonauts died from the start of the Space Age in 1960 until the Apollo 15 Lunar Excursion Module codenamed Falcon landed on the Moon. Two astronauts of Apollo 15 set foot on lunar soil on July 30, 1971.

These men were David Scott (Mission Commander) and James Irwin (Lunar Module Pilot). Their comrade, Alfred Worden (Command Service Module Pilot), was then orbiting the Moon.

It will be 45 years ago on July 30 since Apollo 15, considered the most successful Apollo mission, saw the eighth and ninth American set foot on the Moon. This mission saw the first use of the Lunar Roving Vehicle, also called the Lunar Rover.

Scott left the sculpture beside the plaque bearing the names of his fallen comrades. Scott placed the statuette and the plaque beside the Lunar Rover on Hadley Rille on Aug. 1 while his TV camera was turned off. Only Irwin knew Scott had done so.

The statuette is only 8.5 centimeters in length and was sculpted by Paul Van Hoeydonck. This tiny, stylized figure depicts an astronaut in a spacesuit.

The plaque bears the names of these men and the cause of their deaths:

Theodore C. Freeman (October 31, 1964, aircraft accident)

Charles A. Bassett II (February 28, 1966, aircraft accident)

Elliot M. See Jr. (February 28, 1966, aircraft accident)

Virgil I. Grissom (January 27, 1967, Apollo 1 fire)

Roger B. Chaffee (January 27, 1967, Apollo 1 fire)

Edward H. White II (January 27, 1967, Apollo 1 fire)

Vladimir M. Komarov (April 24, 1967, Soyuz 1 re-entry parachute failure)

Edward G. Givens Jr. (June 6, 1967 automobile accident)

Clifton C. Williams Jr. (October 5, 1967, aircraft accident)

Yuri A. Gagarin (March 27, 1968, aircraft accident)

Pavel I. Belyayev (January 10, 1970, disease)

Georgiy T. Dobrovolsky (June 30, 1971, Soyuz 11 re-entry pressurization failure)

Viktor I. Patsayev (June 30, 1971, Soyuz 11 re-entry pressurization failure)

Vladislav N. Volkov (June 30, 1971, Soyuz 11 re-entry pressurization failure)

Tagsmoon, Apollo 15, Major Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr., Fallen Astronaut, Guion Buford, NASA