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Patches That Never FlewApollo 5On 22 January 1968, the first flight-worthy LM, designated LM-1, was launched into earth orbit aboard a Saturn IB as Apollo 5. There was no crew aboard, and this was the only LM to fly without one. The engineers at Grumman Aircraft, who had built the LM, felt that the mission deserved a patch, and so they designed one. One of the objectives of the flight was to test "fire in the hole" -- operation of the ascent stage engine while the LM's two stages were still mated. This is the inspiration for the design on the patch. Since there was no need for -- nor way to test -- the landing gear, it was omitted on LM-1. The moon, the LM's ultimate destination, appears on the right of the patch. So, this patch was not designed by a crew in the conventional sense, but by a surrogate "crew" in the form of the concerned "parents" of this baby. I present it here in memory of Tom Kelly, "father of the LM," who died on 23 March 2002, at the age of 72.
Space Environment Simulation LaboratoryBuilding 32 at the Manned Spacecraft Center (later renamed Johnson
Space Center) contains two monstrous vacuum chambers that can, except
for weightlessness, simulate the conditions of space. Chamber A
has an internal working volume 27 m high by 17 m diameter, and the
volume of chamber B is 8 m high by 8 m diameter. Chamber A has a
rotatable floor and a 12 m side access door; chamber B has a removable
10 m top access hatch. Both chambers have airlocks for personnel
access. Entire spacecraft can be emplaced in these chambers and
subjected to less than one ten-millionth atmospheric pressure (equivalent
to 200 km altitude), and temperature extremes of -193°C to +127°C.
Entire missions were simulated inside these chambers.
2TV-1In mid-1968, prior to the first manned Apollo mission, astronauts Joe Engle, Vance Brand, and Joe Kerwin spent a week (16-24 June) in a simulated mission using the Block II thermal vacuum test article 2TV-1 (identical, except for some flight-qualified equipment, to Apollo 7's CSM-101) inside chamber A. The crew devised a patch for this exercise which was a take-off on the NASA "vector" emblem. The red "vector" was replaced by a roadrunner (a bird that doesn't fly), and "2TV-1" replaced "NASA". "Joe Kerwin coined the motto which appeared around the border
of the patch: "Arrogans Avis Cauda Gravis": The Proud
Bird with the Heavy Tail. Only 40-50 copies of this rare patch were
manufactured although Beta cloth versions were created as well." According to Hengeveld, the
motto was a paraphrase of the Continental Airlines slogan "The
Proud Bird With the Golden Tail."
LTA-8LTA-8 was the LM counterpart of the 2TV-1 CSM. LM Test Article
8 was put through a simulated flight in chamber B during roughly
the same period 2TV-1 was being tested in chamber A. (In contrast
to the 2TV-1 test, LTA-8 was not crewed during the entire course
of the spacecraft test.) Astronauts Jim Irwin and John Bull were
assigned to conduct this test; however, prior to the test beginning,
Bull developed sinus problems related to pressure changes that required
him to be replaced by his backup, Gerry Gibbons, who was a consulting
pilot for the LM prime contractor, Grumman Aircraft.
SMEATSMEAT (Skylab Medical Experiment Altitude Test) was a 56-day ground-based simulation which began on 26 July 1972. Intended to gather baseline medical data for the medical studies to be conducted during the Skylab flights, the crew of Robert Crippen, William Thornton, and Karol Bobko, ran through a full simulated mission including both a program of experimental studies, and housekeeping and leisure activities. The crew worked with "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz, who did
the drawing for the patch.
Mission Control"As the [last Apollo] mission went forward, I felt increasingly frustrated and melancholy. I would often sit in the corner of the viewing room, silently watching the teams at work... I also thought about the legacy of my generation: trust, values, teamwork. I wanted to be a living connection between the new generation of mission controllers, reminding them of how and where it all started with my generation and where theirs might take us in the future. "Bob McCall, in my belief the premier artist of space, had been sitting on the step to the right of the flight director console, sketching during the final Apollo EVAs. He had designed the Apollo 17 crew patch. When Bob took a break for a cup of coffee, I joined him in the cafeteria... I don't think Bob was surprised when I asked him to design an emblem for the Mission Control team. I spoke emotionally, from my heart and gut, about the control teams and crews, and our life in Mission Control. 'We fought and won the race in space and listened to the cries of the Apollo 1 crew. With great resolve and personal anger, we picked up the pieces, pounded them together, and went on the attack again. We were the ones in the trenches of space and with only the tools of leadership, trust, and teamwork, we contained the risks and made the conquest of space possible.' "Over the next six months, McCall developed the emblem worn proudly by every subsequent generation of mission controller. He inscribed his final rendering of the emblem: 'To Mission Control, with great respect and admiration, Bob McCall 1973.'" --Gene Kranz, Failure Is Not an Option Apparently Kranz is being modest here, because McCall, in his Oral History interview, recalls: "[Kranz] was very, very instrumental in [the patch]. He was the one that asked me to do it, but also the one who really did most of the design. I just brought it together and in a way that could be reproduced nicely." The Latin legend across the top, Res Gesta Par Excellentiam,
translates as Achievement Through Excellence. The symbols
on the bottom border represent the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects.
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