STS-41C Mission Patch

STS-41C Mission Patch

This mission patch was designed for the Space Shuttle mission STS-41B, by the crew of Robert Crippen, Francis Scobee, Terry Hart, James van Hoften, and George Nelson.

The patch design includes a large astronaut helmet, with various elements from the mission reflected in the visor along with the Sun's rays, and the names of the crew around the outside. In the visor can be seen an astronaut on a spacewalk fixing the Solar Maximum Satellite, which had been launched in 1980 but had malfunctioned. The Space Shuttle Columbia is also deploying the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF). LDEF was an experiment where a large cylinder was placed into orbit, with various different materials and experiments fixed to its surface. The original plan was to see the impact of being left in space by retrieving the experiment and bringing it back to Earth aboard the Shuttle after a year. However, after a series of delays, including those caused by the Challenger disaster, LDEF was eventually recovered in 1990.

This particular patch was part of a collection of patches acquired by British-born professor of endocrine and metabolic surgery Anthony Goode, during his years working with NASA’s Life Sciences Division.