Apollo-Soyuz Test Project Mission Patch

Apollo-Soyuz Test Project Mission Patch

Round embroidered Lion Brothers manufactured mission patch, with a thin red outer edge. There is a gold background coloured outer rim with black writing. The central image depicts the Apollo CSM-111 (Command/Service Module) and Soyuz 7K-TM capsule connected in space. Around the outer edge of the patch are the surnames of the three American astronauts, Tom Stafford, Vance Brand and Deke Slayton, as well as the two Soviet cosmonauts, Alexei Leonov and Valeri Kubasov. The Russian text is in Cyrillic, and includes the name of the Russian capsule Soyuz meaning ‘Union’, alongside the American capsule name, Apollo. There is also a blue emblem with three silver stars and a red emblem with two gold stars, which indicate the three American astronauts and two Soviet cosmonauts.

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) was the first joint flight of the American and Soviet space programmes. The mission took place in July 1975. For the USA, it was the last flight for their Apollo spacecraft, whilst the Soviet Soyuz 7K-TM model would go on to be used again the following year when the back-up craft for ASTP was modified and flown as Soyuz 22. ASTP is often seen to mark the end of the Space Race and witnessed an historic and symbolic handshake between the two mission commanders, Stafford and Leonov.

ASTP was the start of a new era of collaboration over competition. The insignia needed to reflect the international significance of the mission. Great care was taken to ensure the design didn’t favour one nation more than the other. The Soyuz is depicted to be the same size as the Apollo spacecraft – even though the Soviet vehicle was actually smaller. The names of the crew and the two spacecraft are written in each country’s native script. The collaborative nature of this mission meant that the Soviet Union developed its own mission patch to go with this American version. There was also an official ASTP project emblem, which can be seen being worn by both crews in their official crew photo. This emblem had no up or down, so that it could be worn a different way up by each nation's crew to ensure that either ‘Apollo’ or ‘Soyuz’ was written in the correct orientation.

Web resources

• A History of Crew Patches