'Young Astronaut' Underpainting Continued: The Background

I've made some good progress on the underpainting for 'Young Astronaut'.  The shuttle and the station are both in place, and so far all the pieces seem to be playing together well.  Having all of this visual context will be really helpful while I work on the more critical part of the composition: the young astronaut himself.If the underpainting looks a bit dim, its because I'm purposefully limiting by palette, not just to neutral colors, but I'm also reserving the brightest value steps for the color phase of the painting. This will all0w for more natural lighting on the figure, give more impact to the highlights, more intensity to the sunlight on the shuttle, and more glow to the earth.