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  STS-51L, STS-61C one-piece mission patches

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Author Topic:   STS-51L, STS-61C one-piece mission patches
Bill Nelson
Member

Posts: 151
From: Lakewood, Colorado U.S.A.
Registered: Jul 2006

posted 02-12-2013 11:03 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Bill Nelson   Click Here to Email Bill Nelson     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I have a question about two STS-51L and STS-61C patches I got just before those missions. I don't have a scanner, so I can't put up images of them.

I think at that time I was buying my patches from the NASA Dryden exchange council gift shop, so I think they came from them. Both the 51L and 61C patches are one piece instead of having a tab sewn on. The previous mission patches I bought from Dryden all had a separate tab on the bottom. I don't think they are made by Swiss Artex.

Again, I had them before the missions. Anyone have any idea who made them?

GoesTo11
Member

Posts: 1309
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 2004

posted 02-12-2013 11:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for GoesTo11   Click Here to Email GoesTo11     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This came up recently with me as well. Around 1985, I bought a set of Shuttle patches (STS-1 through 51-L) at the Dryden gift shop. The 51-G was a one-piece, and so was 61-C. 51-L was tabbed.

I just bought a 2-piece 51-G of similar vintage from cSer Kevin Randall, and after looking at a pic of the one-piece I already had (bought at Dryden), he said it was a Swissartex patch. Just today at the Space Store warehouse, I looked at their recently manufactured AB Emblem patches and all the pre-Challenger ones they now stock are tabbed.

Harald Kraenzel
Member

Posts: 304
From: Dinslaken,Germany
Registered: Nov 2005

posted 02-13-2013 09:02 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Harald Kraenzel   Click Here to Email Harald Kraenzel     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I recently asked AB Emblem and they told me that they never did manufacture these tabbed shuttle patches as one piece patches.

SleeBaudrons
Member

Posts: 16
From: Scotland
Registered: Sep 2012

posted 02-14-2013 02:39 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for SleeBaudrons     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I once read somewhere that if you have AB Emblem patches from the early shuttle missions with separate tabs, this meant they were genuine vintage, as the later production runs were one-piece. I always had doubts about that, because I didn't start collecting shuttle patches until about 1995, and all of my early mission patches have separate tabs. It didn't seem likely to me that there would still be original production versions available for sale a decade or more after some of these missions flew.

Ronpur
Member

Posts: 1211
From: Brandon, Fl
Registered: May 2012

posted 02-14-2013 04:06 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ronpur   Click Here to Email Ronpur     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I got my early patches from Swiss Artex and they were one piece. I believe I ordered from the actual company, but 1986 was a long time ago. After I moved to Florida in 1988, I replaced them with tabbed version purchased at KSC.

Kevin T. Randall
Member

Posts: 1082
From: Chesham, Bucks UK
Registered: Dec 2008

posted 02-15-2013 03:53 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kevin T. Randall   Click Here to Email Kevin T. Randall     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Dispite what AB Emblem may have told Harald they did change the STS-61C and STS-51L patches from two piece patches with the sew on tabs to one piece patches within a short period after the missions were over in late 1986. On the STS-61C they removed the U.S. flag from the Shuttle fuselage, and on the STS-51L they changed the comet from metalic silver to light grey thread.

It is only in the last 10 years or so that AB Emblem have gone back to the original artwork and are producing the STS-61C and STS-51L as two piece patches with the U.S. flag and metalic silver thread for the comet.

All the other two piece patches have changed very little from the originals produced at the times of the missions, other than using modern machines and threads to produce these patches now.

Swissartex Emblem Inc's Shuttle mission patches are of a higher quality in manufacture, (like Lion Brothers), but some of the earlier ones did stray from the original artwork, and are very different from the AB Emblem version of the same patch. (STS-51C, 51J, 61A, and 61B).
The later ones, STS-26 through to about STS-43 are of a much high quality than their AB Emblem equivalent. But after that Swissartex Emblem Inc. changed their name back to Eagle Crest Emblem Inc., and moved their operation to Taiwan, and the quality then went astry.

dogcrew5369
Member

Posts: 750
From: Statesville, NC
Registered: Mar 2009

posted 02-15-2013 09:06 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for dogcrew5369   Click Here to Email dogcrew5369     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Posted below are my original tabbed, metallic comet 51-L and tabbed, USA patch on shuttle 61-C purchased from KSC, yet I didn't purchase mine until the '89-'91 timeframe. Could they have had old stock from '86?

 photo OriginalABEmblem51Land61Cpatchesreverse001.jpg

photo Original51Land61CABEmblempatches001.jpg

Kevin T. Randall
Member

Posts: 1082
From: Chesham, Bucks UK
Registered: Dec 2008

posted 02-15-2013 01:46 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kevin T. Randall   Click Here to Email Kevin T. Randall     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Could well of been as tens of thousands of each patch were produced in 1985/1986 prior to and after each Shuttle launch, especially STS-51L.

dogcrew5369
Member

Posts: 750
From: Statesville, NC
Registered: Mar 2009

posted 02-17-2013 09:30 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for dogcrew5369   Click Here to Email dogcrew5369     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
If I remember correctly I purchased only the 3" patches up until 1990 when I started buying both sizes. 3" from JSC and 4" from KSC. So I know these two patches I posted above are no older than 1990.

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