posted 03-12-2005 09:17 AM            

A: The Shuttle configuration is shown in profile during the first launch from Vandenberg AFB. in California, (V 1). The Earth is shown with the launch site and orbital path highlighted in gold. As in draft "B", the seven star constellation Ursa Minor represent the orbital path of the mission and the possible seven member crew. The names of the orbiter Discovery and crew surround the patch in a royal blue, white and gold band.

B: The orbiter Discovery is shown during its "V 1" launch, (first launch from Vandenberg AFB), as the SRBs separate from the configuration. The payload bay doors are hidden denoting this DOD mission. The "Northern Lights" and constellation Ursa Minor with the north star Polaris combine to illustrate the polar orbital path of this flight. The constellation has seven stars to represent the seven member crew. The names of the orbiter and crew surround the patch in a gold and red band.

C: The Shuttle and DOD mission is represented by an American Bald Eagle in its first launch from Vandenberg AFB. The Eagle holds a red, white and blue banner in its talons with the name of the orbiter Discovery and launch designation "V 1". There are seven stars in the sky to represent the possible seven member crew. The crew names surround the patch.

D: The Shuttle configuration is shown during its first launch from Vandenberg AFB in California, (V 1), rising over two spheres of the earth. The north pole on the left and the south pole on he right illustrate the orbital path of the mission. The name of the orbiter Discovery separates the Shuttle from the two spheres of the Earth. the names of the crew surround the patch in a blue, white and red band.

Note, on every patch I had the vehicle launching in the wrong direction. I had it going north instead of south. I'm sure they got a "chuckle" out of that.

posted 03-12-2005 11:14 AM               

Note, on every patch I had the vehicle launching in the wrong direction. I had it going north instead of south.

posted 03-12-2005 03:14 PM               

Hart the reason north or south are important is because you don't want to have the SRB's come down on someone in the great north west. They would have launched south over the south east Pacific. I would have had the orbiter facing "up" but the Earth "upside down".

posted 05-15-2012 08:56 PM               

First time I've seen the patches for sale.

Anyone have any information to share regarding these patches? Manufacturer, how many made, etc.?

posted 05-16-2012 12:12 AM               

If you are interested in original patches that were actually circulating at Vandenberg AFB at the time, the set with "Flow A" (or maybe it was "Flow B") is the one to go after.

posted 05-17-2012 12:53 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by KSCartist:
I would love to know if any member of the 62A crew had a "favorite" or if any other proposals were under consideration.

---

posted 10-11-2018 06:51 PM               

Recently (early October 2018) the full set (sold as individual patches) from seller "Popular Patch" appeared. The quality is very high-fidelity, it takes a close look to see that they're not the ones from Eagle One Aerospace. The letter sizing is slightly larger, but most of the details are reproduced well. Plastic coated on back.

posted 05-31-2021 12:44 PM               

In early 1985, I wrote to Bob Crippen requesting to design the patch for the STS-62A mission scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in the summer of 1986. He wrote back on May 16, 1985 with an invitation to submit some art. I was thrilled.

The crew would have been:

• Bob Crippen, commander
  
• Guy Gardner, pilot
  
• Jerry Ross, Mike Mullane and Dale Gardner would have served as mission specialists.
  
• Brett Watterson and Ed Aldridge, payload specialists

About six years ago, my patch partner, Dr. Jorge Cartes, and I polished up my hand drawn art and released a set with (I think) an edition of 250. Through that effort I learned which design of the four was favored by the crew.

Well late last year I reached out to Jerry Ross and Mike Mullane via Facebook with an idea to finalize the patch design the way we would with crew input. This spring we did just that. I even shared the finished art with Bob Crippen via email and he was pleased wishing that they would have been able to fly.

My plan is to have the design made as an embroidered patch exactly as it would have been in 1986 with a separate sewn on tab for the payload specialist names.

The 35th anniversary of the mission is in July. If there is sufficient interest, I plan to unveil the patch at Spacefest. The price of the patch will be $6.25 (62A). For those who want it I will also offer a certificate suitable for signing for $10.

Are you interested?

posted 06-05-2021 07:43 PM               

The 35th anniversary of the launch is in July. I plan to unveil the actual patch at Spacefest July 15-18, 2021.

The patches are now in production. Please see here for ordering details.

posted 06-05-2021 11:48 PM               

The Big Dipper also caught my eye, being that it was prominent in the STS-26 patch to honor the Challenger crew. But here it serves to point to Polaris, the North Star, in another nod to the near-polar orbit the mission would have taken out of Vandenberg.

posted 06-17-2021 03:12 AM               

As for the patch.

They are in production and I expect to receive them just before I leave for Spacefest. So I wont be shipping orders until I return. Roughly the third week of July.

posted 07-19-2021 01:18 AM               

• 432978 A-B Emblem Made In China 06/21 40

posted 07-30-2021 09:47 PM               

I'm assuming he saw the announcement on this thread and will see this post. The patch is ready to mail.

posted 07-14-2022 02:16 PM               

Reproduction of this design from the source material was guided by David T. Pinson working with Justin Shaw and the AB Emblem design team. This is our best effort of a reproduction of this patch design, based on a crew photograph.

posted 07-14-2022 03:09 PM               

The SKU patch design number and the date codes details on the embedded labels are;

• 438863 A-B Emblem Made In China 07/22 01 (The Space Store batch)
  
• 438863 A-B Emblem Made In China 12/22 01

posted 07-14-2022 03:53 PM               

It appears that on the cake the stars were a darker blue (and there were eight on the cake versus seven on the patch) and the three trails from the orbiter were a yellow-orange leading into a red plume (the white in the plume on the cake might be the underlying icing protruding through).

The border between Earth and space also appears to have been two colors on the cake and only one on the patch.

posted 09-02-2022 09:27 AM               

First, some brief background - I've been an avid collector of vintage and rare space patches since the 1990s, and while I love them all I have a soft spot for the pre-Challenger shuttle era (both from a history standpoint and a patch design stand point). In particular, I've always been fascinated with the missions that were cancelled after Challenger, especially the first SLC-6 launch from the west coast.

I've also loved all the creative 62-A patches that have been made and designed by folks on this forum. Speaking of which, I've been an active reader of this forum for a long time but I'm not really a social media person, so I've never posted anything.

But, regarding the 62-A patch, I was ecstatic when I stumbled across the photo above on the web showing the prime and backup crew members together with a "DRAFT" patch design on a cake. It obviously seemed authentic, but I reached out to Mike Mullane and asked him if he remembered anything about it. He responded to me that it was authentic, and it was actually taken at his old house in Houston! But he didn't recall the patch design or the event in question. He reached out to Jerry Ross who also didn't remember any specifics.

I asked Mike if he would be OK with me making a replica patch based on the design, and he was. So I proceeded from there to work with AB to make the best design possible given the blurry picture. It was a labor of love, and more than anything I wanted to be able to share the work I did with fellow collectors as another "what might have been" design, as close to vintage as possible.

posted 09-02-2022 03:52 PM               

This is David Pinson, who worked with AB Emblem to make the replica 62-A patch happen. First, some brief background - I've been an avid collector of vintage and rare space patches since the 1990s, and while I love them all I have a soft spot for the pre-Challenger shuttle era (both from a history standpoint and a patch design stand point). In particular, I've always been fascinated with the missions that were cancelled after Challenger, especially the first SLC-6 launch from the west coast. I've also loved all the replica patches that have been made and designed by folks on this forum. Speaking of which, I've been an active reader of this forum for a long time but I'm not really a social media person, so I've never posted anything. But, regarding the 62-A patch, I was ecstatic when I stumbled across the photo above on the web showing the prime and backup crew members together with a "DRAFT" patch design on a cake. It obviously seemed authentic, but I reached out to Mike Mullane and asked him if he remembered anything about it. He responded to me that it was authentic, and it was actually taken at his old house in Houston! But he didn't recall the patch design or the event in question. He reached out to Jerry Ross who also didn't remember any specifics. I asked Mike if he would be OK with me making a replica patch based on the design, and he was. So I proceeded from there to work with AB to make the best design possible given the blurry picture. It was a labor of love, and more than anything I wanted to be able to share the work I did with fellow collectors as another "what might have been" design, as close to vintage as possible. As with any project, once you are done you see all the flaws or things you have missed and should have caught, but I hope that it hits the mark close enough to be enjoyed by all!