After 60 years of spaceflight patches, here are some of our favorites

So there’s a rich tradition of space mission patches to draw from, and we thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite patches from across the decades.

Apollo 11

The first human mission to the moon was one of the only mission patches carried out by NASA no Includes crew members’ names: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. It was a carefully considered choice by the crew, who wanted the world to know they were heading to the moon for all of humanity.

Another NASA astronaut, Jim Lovell, said condors may be the focus of the patch. Collins tracked the eagle from a National Geographic Kids magazine and added an olive branch as a symbol of the mission’s peaceful intent.

The result is a clear symbol of America leading humanity to another world. It’s simple yet powerful.

skylab rescue mission

Skylab was NASA’s first space station, launched into orbit after the last Apollo moon landing in 1972. The space station was launched into orbit by a modified Saturn V rocket.

NASA scrambled to assemble the Apollo spacecraft that carried the second astronaut to Skylab in 1973 due to leaks in its thrusters. A “rescue” mission as an unexpected event. In this rescue scenario, astronauts Vance Brand and Don Lind will fly to the space station and bring back Alan Bean, Jake Losma and Owen Garriott specifically for the Five Configuration of the Apollo space capsule.

Ultimately, NASA decided that astronauts could return to Earth aboard the malfunctioning Apollo spacecraft, using only half of the spacecraft’s thrusters. So Brand and Lind never went on a rescue mission. But we got a pretty cool (if not very official) patch in the deal.