collectSPACE - news - "Designing an uplifting end to NASA's space shuttle program"

Artist-supplied caption:

This patch encompasses the space shuttle's lifetime, showing the years of first and last launch. The space shuttle emblem is the same one used at the start of the program, modified to show a small, slightly ragged shadow in the sections above the wings. The gold color with blue border is the inverse of the original shuttle patch. The patch is shaped as an orbiter's outline, close to the same shape used by the STS-107 crew for their patch. Two groups of seven stars each represent crew members who gave their lives in the exploration of space. The left group is for the crew of STS-107, arranged as the crew arranged the stars on their patch. The right group represents the crew of STS-51L, arranged in a pattern similar, but not exactly the same as the STS-107 group, symbolizing the combination of unity in purpose with diversity in the persons of space flight crews.