STS-127 Mission Patch Released

[Webhamster]

NASA released the artwork for the STS-127 mission patch yesterday. STS-127 is a flight to the International Space Station due to launch no earlier than June 2009.

The red maple leaf is for Julie Payette's status as a Canadian astronaut, the stylized star is lifted from the JAXA logo as this flight will be carrying the Japanese Experiment Module to the ISS.

Crew:

Mark Polansky - Commander

Douglas Hurley - Pilot

Christopher Cassidy - Mission Specialist 1

Thomas Marshburn - Mission Specialist 2

David Wolf - Mission Specialist 3

Julie Payette (CSA) - Mission Specialist 4

Timothy Kopra - Mission Specialist 5/ISS Flight Engineer (Launching to the ISS)

Koichi Wakata (JAXA) - ISS Flight Engineer/Mission Specialist 5 (Landing from the ISS)

[yalioo123]

[Mod edit: Spam.]

[pollux]

I'm curious... Is it the first time that a non-American astronaut is identified on the patch?

[fiasco!]

I'm curious... Is it the first time that a non-American astronaut is identified on the patch?

I'm pretty sure it's not.

[pollux]

I'm curious... Is it the first time that a non-American astronaut is identified on the patch?

I'm pretty sure it's not.

I meant identified with a maple leaf, for a Canadian. I know all astronauts participating on a mission are named on the patch, but I'm wondering if their nationality is mentioned in a special way as well.

[Waffles]

From the doomed Columbia STS-107 mission:

I'm sure there are others.

[jedipick1138]

Who does the artwork on these patch logos? I know that the crew "designs" it, but who actually puts it together for production?

[crashcarson15]

From the doomed Columbia STS-107 mission:

I'm sure there are others.

Yeah, there are many others...

Ask me, I'm the guy that'll be working for NASA in 10 or 15 years

[Brick]

Any significance to the 10 stars in the patch or their pattern?

[Ben7]

I have read somewhere that the crew themselves design the patch or at least give their ideas. Overall it's a very interesting thing these Space Patches.

[Webhamster]

I have read somewhere that the crew themselves design the patch or at least give their ideas. Overall it's a very interesting thing these Space Patches.

It depends on the crew. Sometimes they have artist friends do it, sometimes they turn it into a contest (STS-115 turned their patch design over to design students at York University), sometimes they work with an in-house NASA artist, and sometimes the crew sketch it out and then hand it off to a NASA artist to get finished off. Jim Lovell sketched the Apollo 8 patch while sitting the back seat of a T-38 jet flying from Los Angeles to Houston and then handed it to an artist for finishing.

Here's a good view of the process for the design of the STS-120 patch with early drafts from one artist and the commander's comments on the design process. There's also more insight into the process here which documents the design process for STS-62A (canceled after Challenger in 1986).

This extends to the Russian program too. Here's the design process for the Soyuz TMA-13 patch.

Other interesting stuff:

- Design process for STS-126 (in space right now)

- Design process for early Apollo patches (including rejected Apollo 11 patches)

[Webhamster]

Any significance to the 10 stars in the patch or their pattern?

I suspect that the 10 stars are meant to represent the 10 astronauts who would be aboard the ISS at the time of this flight (7 on the shuttle/3 on board the station). Or least this was supposed to be the case at the time the patch was designed. The mission has been delayed to June (from it's original May launch) because of the re-scheduling of the Hubble mission so there will actually be 13 crew members on the station (7 Shuttle/6 Station) by that time. I have no idea if 3 extra stars will be added or not.