When launching a sculpture into outer space, you’re bound to be concerned with wind patterns, which is why conversations with artist Scott Grow often turn to the weather.

Twice, he’s launched his four-inch spaceman—cast out of melted meteorite—into the sky, reaching as high as 20 miles above the ground. His aim is to send the Earth-stranded galactic explorer back to the stars, a project that’s had Grow trekking to remote desert locations for the launches, including Michael Heizer’s land sculpture “Double Negative” near Overton.

It’s a project, he says, that weds his childhood interests in outer space and sci-fi with ideas of exploration and isolation—one he conceived 10 years ago but didn’t take on until he arrived in Las Vegas as an MFA student. On March 1, his exhibit, Sky Field, opens at RTZvegas, featuring his original spaceman—created from meteorite that fell to Earth about 6,000 years ago—along with casts made in bronze and documentary images and text about the ongoing project. The exhibit also includes Grow’s acrylic/resin, space-inspired paintings, worthwhile in their own right. But it’s likely that the astronaut and his pals may steal the show.