One of River City Silver’s top clients in the last several years is Space Images. Space Images specializes in taking images from NASA and the Hubble Space Telescope, usually in high-resolution digital format, and offering them as photographic prints to customers via the World Wide Web.

The driving force behind the success of Space Images is the close cooperation between SI and RCS. Orders are sent in digitally or brought in on CD-ROM, with the files being preformatted for the size the end customer is requesting. The photographs are printed on River City Silver’s LightJet 5000 Direct Digital Photographic Printer on matte or glossy paper, or as Duratrans backlit display transparencies. The photos are then carefully packaged by Space Images for shipping around the world, with customers usually receiving their finished prints in one week.

One of the biggest selling points to Space Images’ customers is the photographic nature of the prints. Many prints are available as inexpensive lithographed posters, but the LightJet photographic prints have a beauty and durability that conventional posters cannot match.

Ron Weber, principle of Space Images is a big fan of the LightJet for this work, having previously done all of the printing by himself in his home darkroom. “Even the best darkroom enlargers equipped with the best lenses cannot compete with this direct laser imaging technology,” said Weber. The quality is so reliable that Space Images offers a 30-day money back guarantee.

The Space Images web site (at www.spaceimages.com) has previews of images available and runs monthly specials on certain images. Images are available from Space Shuttle missions, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Apollo Missions. Historical images, views of various Earth locations from space and astronaut portraits are also available and there is always one image that is discounted as the Pick of the Month.