posted 05-04-2013 10:59 AM               

ISS Expedition 43 mission patch

The International Space Station's (ISS) Expedition 43 begins with the scheduled undocking of Soyuz TMA-14M in March 2015. Three new crew members will arrive shortly thereafter on Soyuz TMA-16M.

Expedition 43 will be commanded by NASA astronaut Terry Virts. His crewmates, all flight engineers, include: Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, Yury Lonchakov and Mikhail Korniyenko, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

The hexagon (six-sided) shape of the Expedition 43 patch represents the six crew members living and working onboard the orbital outpost.

The International Space Station is portrayed in orbit around the Earth, representing the multi-national partnership that has constructed, developed, and continues to operate the ISS for the benefit of all humankind.

The sunrise marks the beginning of a new day, reflecting the fact that we're at the dawn of our history as a space faring species. The moon and planets represent future exploration of our solar system, for which the ISS is a stepping stone.

Finally, the five stars honor the crews who have lost their lives during the pursuit of human spaceflight.

posted 08-12-2013 01:01 PM               

AB Emblem does not plan to offer this patch for sale until closer to the launch in 2015. Until then, this patch will not be in production except for the orders directly from NASA.

posted 09-06-2013 05:53 PM               

Yuri Lonchakov unexpectedly resigned Thursday (Sept. 5), leaving the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos, despite being assigned to command the International Space Station in 2015.

posted 02-17-2014 01:25 PM               

ПАДАЛКА

Here's an enlargement of the Padalka's name from the patch:

posted 11-23-2014 10:16 PM               

I am kind of partial to the '43' patch. It looks a lot like our [STS]-130 patches.

posted 02-09-2023 10:15 AM            

The "A" and "B" variants show the original crew (with Lonchakov), and the "A" I believe to be the TsENKI version. The other variant is pretty close to the A-B Emblem style (even including silver and gold metallic threads in the "43"), however, not an exact match for sure.

The three patches on the right are final crew and all A-B Emblem, though with "E" having a white plastic "step-and-repeat" backer I've never seen before, and "D" with a sewn-on Velcro hook backing. Would A-B have offered a Velcro variant as a retail item, or was it intended only for the actual crew?

posted 02-10-2023 05:59 AM               

The other Lonchakov you have, differs from the original AB Emblem version. It is using a different embroidery pattern.

These were probably all made after the fact, to sell them as "originals." Back then, I saw several people trying to make some money out of the crew change, by selling fake patches. This was probably fueled by the sale of an original 43 Lonchakov patch on eBay for $550 by someone working at NASA in Houston. One seller of a lighter blue patch claimed he had been handed the patch by an ESA astronaut. Maybe, ESA had some early Expedition 43 patches produced as well, by another manufacturer (one of the crew was Samantha Cristoforetti).

In the most recent Lunar Legacies auction, a light blue Lonchakov patch also appeared. It was sold with a note explaining that only 50 were ever made by AB Emblem. This information is correct, but the patch in the auction was clearly not one of those 50 made by AB Emblem.

The batch of 50 Lonchakov patches, of which 15 were delivered to the Kentavr factory in Russia for the onboard clothing, had stickers with a label reading "213238 - Made in USA - 4 13 20" embedded on the back. (This was a mistake: the artwork was received from NASA by AB Emblem in June 2013; the embroidered patches were produced in July 2013 and should have read "7 13 20".)

I have no idea what happened to the original Lonchakov patches at the Kentavr factory after they were replaced, but I assume black velcro had been attached to them by then — this is what Kentavr usually did to prepare them for flight, just like the velcroed Padalka version you have.

posted 02-14-2023 07:30 AM               

ISS-43 Lonchakov patch:

• 213238 Made In USA 4 13 20 (date code error, should of been 7 13 20). Just one short production run of 50 patches only.

• 217945 Made In USA 111320 (a short production run of 50 patches only).
  
• 217945 Made In USA 0114 20 (another short production run, the number made is not known).
  
• (217945) with multiple red white and blue "Made In USA" and "U.S. flags" plus the black "crown emblems" printed on a white experimental backing. A short production run was made during August 2014 (08/1420) the number made is not known, possibly just 50 patches? (Patch "E").
  
• 217945 Made In USA 09/1420 (seen photo on eBay 28th July 2021).
  
• 217945 Made In USA 10/1420 (patch "C").
  
• 217945 Made In USA 02/1520
  
• 217945 Made In USA 03/1520
  
• possible production run here?
  
• 217945 Made In USA 03/2016
  
• 217945 Made In USA 04/2016
  
• 217945 Made In USA 8/16/20
  From this point onwards all patches should have the new style "crown emblem" labels on them.
  
• 217945 A-B Emblem (China) 12/1740
  
• 217945 A-B Emblem Made In China 09/20 40