Fans of small town, grass-roots productions will delight in this wonderful outer space childrens album produced by the Fremont, Ohio-based Shoup family back in 1971. With the blessing of Captain Shoup himself, we produced this humble but nice, homemade CD version for your enjoyment.

The Captain got his start as an amateur ventriloquist long before the Astronauts hit the scene. Inspired at age 8 by TV personalities such as Edgar Bergen and Jerry Mahoney and tutored by Texas-based ventriloquist Captain Hook, the father of this family act led the Christian Astronauts on a decade-long career spanning the entire 1970s. Five of those years were spent on the road touring nearly every U.S. state and gigging at local churches. The following five years were spent in Washington D.C. where the family filmed over 300 episodes of Beyond the Blue, a cable TV childrens ministry. We're told each episode was filmed inside an elaborate space ship set, custom-built by the Captain. Besides Rick and Michelle (siblings), Sister Shoup (mom), and Jerry (the space dummy), the production starred a 7 foot tall robot named Loosenut, equipped with flashing eyes and moving arms.

The group released one full-length vinyl LP, custom pressed on Gospel Empire records. This issue reproduces that album faithfully, remastered from a mint copy of the original vinyl LP with exact front and back cover artwork. We printed the covers and trays on nice paper and had them professionally duplicated as CDRs. The discs are printed with the sunset from the cover--it's not a paper label, the image is printed directly onto the CD. The whole package worked out very well and it allows us to sell them for less than our other CDs.

From the jaw-dropping "mouth rocket" blast-off to the frightening run-in with the meteorite storm, we hope this DIY production will leave you shaking your head in wonder as it did us. Behold! The Christian Astronauts! [click here to read the album liner notes]

 Original LP and CD cover [click for large version]

  Original LP and CD back
  [click for large version]

 [Go to the ordering info page for payment and other details]