Apollo 14 Mission Patch
Apollo 14 Mission Patch
Unusually for designs of this era, the Apollo 14 patch showed space as blue instead of black. The object heading from Earth to the Moon is an astronaut pin. A silver version of this pin was given to astronauts when they were accepted into the astronaut corps. After their first space flight they were given a gold version.The backup crew for Apollo 14 nicknamed themselves the ‘First Team’ and designed their own practical joke mission patch. The prime crew had gained the nickname the ‘Three Rookies’, as Alan Shepard had only 15 minutes of flight time and his two crewmates had never flown in space before. The backup crew’s patch depicted a grey-bearded Wile. E. Coyote – a reference to Shepard’s advanced age – being beaten to the Moon by the 'First Team' Roadrunner.
The backup crew had final access to the spacecraft before launch and while they completed their final checks, they also hid copies of their mission patches wherever they could. On the journey to the Moon the ‘Three Rookies’ received a surprise every time they opened a container, as the joke mission patches floated out!
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More information
Object number
2017-17
Location
Artefact Store
Has this object been into space?
No
Material
Cotton
Materials & techniques note
Embroidered
Associated event
Apollo 14
Associated Person
Alan Shepard
Ed Mitchell
Stu Roosa
Object Production Date
Circa 1971
Object Production Organisation
Lion Brothers
Object Production Place
Maryland
Baltimore County
United States
Object Production Person
Jean Beaulieu
On Display Status
On display
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