posted 02-07-2024 07:21 AM               

From eBay listing 266660226362:

This is not an official NASA issued class patch. It was never issued or used. This is nothing more than a patch that was made because the original design was not approved by NASA HQ and all the astronauts were extremely upset due to the circumstances surrounding why it was denied by HQ.

posted 02-07-2024 08:50 AM               

Our ASCAN patch was the second patch designed for the class. The first patch looks like the Orbiter is flying into the patch.

You will note that there are 21 stars on it. In other words, it did have stars for (Wubbo) Ockels and (Claude) Nicollier. The patch went through all the required approval cycles at JSC and was sent to NASA Headquarters for final approval.

After being reviewed by the higher authorities in Washington it was disapproved. The explanation given was that it appeared that the Orbiter was firing a gun out of its nose. This was during the cold war and someone at headquarters felt that it made the Orbiter appear to be engaged in a warlike act.

This really upset the class because it had been our choice and it had been cleared by (George) Abbey and (John) Young.

It resulted in the second patch being designed. The reason it only had 19 stars on it was because Abbey and Young felt they had been politically pressured into accepting Ockels and Nicollier into the class and therefore they were only going to approve a patch for the class as it was originally constituted.