The All-Ohio Space Shuttle Mission Patch

The All-Ohio Space Shuttle Mission Patch

The mission patch was produced by astronaut Don Thomas to mark his eventful STS-70 Space Shuttle Discovery mission. A detail unique to this mission was the fact that four of the five crew members on STS-70 grew up in Ohio. The Pilot, Kevin Kregel, who was born in Amityville, New York, was made an honorary ‘Ohian’ by the Governor of Ohio so the mission could become ‘The All Ohio' mission.

STS-70 also had the nickname 'The Woodpecker Shuttle Flight' due to the mission being postponed after northern flicker woodpeckers damaged the External Tank while it stood on Pad 39B during countdown. The birds pecked over 70 holes in the tank’s foam insulation, which is a critical part of its thermal protection system during launch and re-entry.

Northern flicker woodpeckers normally build their nests in the soft wood palm trees, so the soft insulation on the outside of the tank seemed the ideal habitat until they pecked through to the hard-aluminium layer underneath. Once this happened the persistent birds moved to another area and tried again. The damage was too much to repair on the pad, so the Shuttle Stack had to be returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building and a new launch date was set.