Apollo Soyuz
Test Project
This is the official American crew patch for the Apollo-Soyuz flight,
though the Soviet crew also wore this patch on the flight. The Soviet
crew had their own patch which they wore
in addition.
While not credited in the official NASA caption, Robert
McCall's painting of the ASTP
rendezvous is clearly the source for the image on this patch. (And
in fact, Vance Brand referred to it as "Bob McCall's patch".)
"APOLLO" and the American astronaut names appear in Latin script,
while "SOYUZ" and the Soviet cosmonaut names appear in Cyrillic.
The 3 stars in the blue field, and the 2 stars in the red field,
represent the American and Soviet crews, respectively.
 |
|
[apso-ap1]
As the image of the initial design provided to me by the JSC
History Office was black and white, the colors in my re-creation
of this patch are a "best guess." I chose gold for
the border because the final patch had a gold border.
|
The initial version of this patch (shown at left), as submitted
by the American prime crew for approval in the spring of 1974, was
disapproved by NASA Headquarters, with the explanation that "since
this is a significant international project ... perhaps a patch
depicting more of the international significance might merit further
consideration." The crew apparently didn't make much of this
direction, as they re-submitted the same design without change.
It was again rejected. In December a second design was submitted
for approval, which was finally granted.
The expression of reasons for disapproval of the first design seem
to me rather vague, especially so when one considers the design
that was eventually approved. The two versions have many design
elements in common -- the biggest change is the removal of the national
flag motifs. Perhaps the removal of national identification design
elements, thus eliminating the political overtones, is what NASA
headquarters was seeking. Personally, I find it rather amusing to
observe that the Soviet crew patch is
based on the very design elements that were removed from the American
patch.
The ASTP project patch was carefully
designed to eliminate any bias by having APOLLO and SOYUZ appear
on opposite sides of the patch, which had no inherent up/down or
left/right orientation.
|
[apso-aa1]
The painting by Robert McCall which clearly served as the
source for the central image of the ASTP patch.
|
 |
 |
|
[apso-aw1]
NASA photo ID: S75-20361
Taken: 27 Feb 1975
|
[apso-bc1]
Beta cloth version of the
Apollo-Soyuz patch.
88mm w × 89mm h
|
 |
 |
|
[apso-em1]
AB Emblem embroidered Apollo-Soyuz crew patch. The gold
border on this patch has metallic threads.
103mm dia
|
[apso-em2dks]
A special AB Emblem embroidered Apollo-Soyuz crew patch.
Apparently a set of these 4-1/2-inch patches was made for
the American ASTP crew, similar to those made for Apollo
17. This one has Slayton's initials, "DKS", embroidered
in yellow thread at the bottom of the patch. This patch
was auctioned as lot #878 in the Fall 2003 Aurora
Galleries Space & Aviation Memorabilia Auction (and
fetched $1200!).
|
 |
 |
|
[apso-em3]
Lion Brothers embroidered Apollo-Soyuz crew patch. The crew
names run together without any gap between Slayton and Leonov.
101mm dia.
|
The Lion Brothers hallmark, the letters
"ASTP", can be seen above Leonov's name in the cloud patterns.
|
 |
|
The official ASTP project patch, designed
by a Soviet artist to avoid any bias toward either side.
NASA photo S74-17843.
|
 |
 |
|
This photo of Valeriy Kubasov during
the ASTP mission shows that the Soviets wore two mission
patches -- one of American design, and one of Soviet --
as well as a Soviet crest and flag. NASA Photo ID AST-5-305.
|
[soap-em1]
An original Soviet crew patch. It appears that this patch
consisted of a base of red felt, with the remaining colors
embroidered on that base. "VII-1975" at the bottom refers
to the date of the flight, July 1975. My thanks to Luc van
den Abeelen for this image.
|
 |
 |
|
[soap-em2]
A reproduction of the Soviet crew patch. This patch shows
signs of wear, so it may be an older repro, perhaps made
in the Soviet Union.
114mm w × 114mm h
|
[soap-em3]
A reproduction of the Soviet crew patch. According to John
Bisney this was manufactured by Stewart Aviation of the
UK. Not very faithful to the original design, this one is
all-embroidered, has straight instead of curved sides, and
the bottom side is too narrow.
115mm w × 116mm h
|
|
The Manned Flight Awareness medallion
created for ASTP used the American crew patch for the obverse
design. The reverse reads, in English and Russian, "This
medallion contains metal from both Apollo and Soyuz that
joined together in the first International manned space
mission on July 15-24, 1975."
|
 |
This page copyright © 2000-2006 Eugene Dorr.
All rights reserved.
|
|
