Alan Bean
Jack Lousma
Owen Garriott

J.W. Eastman
J.A. Wright

The Skylab crew 2 patch has as its central image an adaptation of a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, which was inspired by the writings of the first century BCE Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio in his De Architectura libri decem (Ten Books on Architecture), the oldest and most influential work on the subject. In the third volume, Vitruvius suggests that buildings should reflect the proportions of the human figure — and that this figure would fit into the perfect geometric figures of the circle and the square. Leonardo, thus inspired, drew such a figure in one of his now-famous notebooks around 1487. While usually referred to as Leonardo’s “Vitruvian Man,” it really has no formal title.

We had decided that our patch should be red, white and blue for obvious reasons. The Earth half of the patch is pretty straightforward. The sun half is a little special in that the solar flare depicted in yellow orange is the shape of one Owen Garriott had done extensive analysis on years before. Leonardo da Vinci’s man represents the medical aspects of the flight. Certain modifications were made in da Vinci’s art to make it more suitable for family viewing.

— Jack Lousma, from All We Did Was Fly to the Moon

According to an article published in the September 1973 issue of the Skylab Orbital Workshop prime contractor’s house organ McDonnell Douglas Spirit, J.W. Eastman and J.A. Wright collaborated on the design with feedback from the crew.

In my opinion, this is one of the handsomest of the early patches. According to John Bisney, Alan Bean — who became a full-time artist after leaving the astronaut corps — was very particular about the patch artwork for his missions.

French journalist Jacques Tiziou conceived the idea of a patch based on the actual mission design, but using a female figure in place of the Leonardo-based male form. He asked Alan Bean’s art teacher, Ardis Shanks, to draw the female figure, added this to the base design, and replaced the crew names with the names of their wives — Sue Bean, Helen-Mary Garriott and Gratia Lousma. He then had 320 embroidered patches made, and arranged for an astronaut acquaintance to stash a number of these in the Skylab crew 2 CM, reminiscent of the way the Apollo 14 backup crew secreted their own patch in the nooks and crannies of the Apollo 14 spacecraft.