Some days ago I had the opportunity to visit German space artist Detlev van Ravenswaay living some kilometers away from me. It was a very impressive visit with Detlev when he shows me his drawings and paintings and of course some items of his space collection. I knew that Detlev designed two patches for the D-1 Spacelab mission. But I was surprised to hear that he designed the ASTROLAB patch for Thomas Reiter's mission on board the ISS, which will last until December this year. I first saw an ASTROLAB patch on eBay when 4gator sold a version, which he made. Some time later 4gator offered a different patch which was larger than the first one and very similar to the original ASTROLAB patch. Detlev told me that he saw the first 4gator ASTROLAB patch and talked to him. Detlev gave permission to 4gator to take the original design and sent him a scan. Detlev asked 4gator to make a second ASTROLAB patch but this time as close as possible to the original design which 4gator successfully did. But during my visit I was very happy when Detlev showed me an original ASTROLAB patch. I asked him whether I can buy one and he agreed. He told me that this is the second last one and that he only has left one more which he of course want to have for himself. I asked him who made this patch but he does not know that. It was a very interesting visit and it was a pleasure to meet Detlev who is a very friendly guy. Many thanks to him for some nice hours talking on space themes. |