Mission Patch
The design of the Expedition 9 mission patch includes a tribute to astronauts and cosmonauts who gave their lives in space exploration. The outspread wings of the eagle have 16 stars and 1 star of David. They represent the Apollo 1 crew Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. Space Shuttle Challenger STS-51L crew Francis "Dick" Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnick and Christa McAuliffe. Space Shuttle Columbia STS-107 crew Rick Husband, William C. McCool, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Michael P. Anderson, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut. Around the eagles neck are 4 small red stars and one larger red star. The large star is for Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space during Vostok 1, who was killed during training for Soyuz 3. The other 4 are for Soyuz 1 cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, Soyuz 11 crew Georgi Dobrovolski, Viktor Patsayev and Vladislav Volkov.
Read more about this topic: Expedition 9
Famous quotes containing the words mission and/or patch:
“... [a] girl one day flared out and told the principal “the only mission opening before a girl in his school was to marry one of those candidates [for the ministry].” He said he didn’t know but it was. And when at last that same girl announced her desire and intention to go to college it was received with about the same incredulity and dismay as if a brass button on one of those candidate’s coats had propounded a new method for squaring the circle or trisecting the arc.”
—Anna Julia Cooper (1859–1964)
“Whatever patch of limb
he gazes on
with unblinking eyes,
I cover up
but I want him to see it all anyway.”
—Hla Stavhana (c. 50 A.D.)