Posts: 1031
From: The Netherlands
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posted 03-11-2011 11:35 AM               

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Roscosmos release

Soyuz TMA-02M mission patch

The chief of Russia's Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, Anatoly Perminov, approved on Friday (March 11) the mission emblem for the next crew of the Russian manned spacecraft Soyuz, TMA-02M, which is scheduled to launch in May 2011.

The Soyuz TMA-02M crew (Sergey Volkov, Michael Fossum, Satoshi Furukawa) chose as the inspiration for its mission patch the drawing of 8-year-old artist Kati Ikramov from Krasnoyarsk, Russia.

Ikramov has been invited to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in May, and Roscosmos hopes that the journey will be a wonderful gift for her in Russia's "Year of Space Exploration."

(Please note that this is a copyrighted design. Official embroidered patches will be available to collectors around the time of launch.)

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posted 03-12-2011 09:19 PM            

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The Soyuz is pointed downwards. Bad omen in nautical mythology. Isn't there something about a ship with a downward-facing figurehead being doomed? A forward or upward facing figurehead meant the figurehead was "looking out" for the vessel for protection.(Interesting how few shuttles are portrayed facing downward in mission patches).

I know, I know, there's no up or down in space (it's all relative), but this is the first Soyuz I can recall clearly facing downwards on a patch.

Posts: 403
From: Hilversum, The Netherlands
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posted 03-13-2011 04:33 AM               

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I have never been aware of that nautical 'rule'. But I guess spaceflight and sea-faring are two different disciplines. There are 15 STS patches that show the orbiter 'going down', so that was obviously not a problem to the astronauts. During the design process, the commander of this mission never mentioned this either.

I think that 'going down' is something that is a very important part of a spacecraft's mission; i.e. landing on Earth, something that it is designed to do, as opposed to the going down of a ship at sea...

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From: Titusville, FL USA
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posted 03-13-2011 05:19 AM               

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I don't view it as "going down" but more as "coming at you". The angle is similar in the STS-3 patch.

If I am viewing this accurately - the intent was to show the Soyuz just prior to docking.

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posted 03-19-2011 02:56 PM            

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quote:

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Originally posted by KAPTEC:
It reminds me of old sci-fi drawings in the time when I was a kid...

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I totally agree with you. The 50's style sci-fi rocket gives the patch a "futuristic" retro feel. Which is not only an oxymoron but cool in my opinion.

I for one am very glad that Roscosmos has continued to use the drawings of children as inspiration for patches as I found most pre-children inspired patches to be a bit dull and uninspired.

Posts: 1031
From: The Netherlands
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