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Author
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Topic: NASA meatball patch blue-bordered variants
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spaced out
Member Posts: 3110
From: Paris, France
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 11-20-2011 02:21 AM
   
I noted the blue-bordered NASA vector/meatball patch in last night's Lunar Legacies auction when looking through the listings pre-auction but when it was live seeing it again piqued my interest.This morning I had a look back at my photos and notes. What got me thinking was that the first appearance of a blue-bordered meatball patch worn by an astronaut was actually on Walt in a 1968 training photo. Unfortunately, the image is not quite sharp enough to see if this is the variant 2 or the Type IV. Looking at other crew photos however I soon saw (it's even obvious in retrospect) that the Apollo 12 crew were wearing the 'variant 2' version in recovery. The Apollo 10 crew photos are not as sharp but I lean towards this too being the variant 2. Roosa (certainly) and Mitchell (probably) also wore this version on their Apollo 14 recovery flight suits, with Shepard wearing an earlier white bordered version. The Apollo 13 crew wore the 'Type IV' version, as did the Apollo 16 and 17 crews. I can't comment on Apollo 15 as none of the photos I have show the meatball patch (which they wore on their right shoulder) clearly-enough. This means that I need to re-visit my page and re-classify the crew worn NASA meatball patches to shows two distinct blue-bordered versions. The first (previously variant 2) was probably the first to be used, worn by the Apollo 10, 12 and 14 crews. The second (previously Type IV) was first worn by the Apollo 13 crew and subsequently by the crews of Apollo 16 and 17. I'll try to update my site when I get time. |
spaced out
Member Posts: 3110
From: Paris, France
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 11-20-2011 02:09 PM
The Crew Patches site is now updated to reflect the two distinct varieties of blue-bordered NASA meatball patches worn by the Apollo crews on their post-flight jump suits. - Type IV - is the patch worn by the Apollo 10, 12 and 14 crews and previously identified as blue-bordered variant 2.
- Type V - is the later version worn by the crews of Apollo 13, 16 and 17 and previously identified as Type IV. This is the more common type, as far as I am aware.
Time to go check your collections and see which one you have... |
Mike Z
Member Posts: 451
From: Ellicott City, Maryland
Registered: Dec 2005
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posted 11-20-2011 07:31 PM
Since I look real close at patches for detail several months ago I noticed that the NASA patch the astronauts have been wearing on their royal blue flight suits is slightly different than the ones sold in all the patch stores.The "S" in NASA is straight across not rounded. The bigger stars (crosses) are thicker, the vector is slimmer, the top of the "A" is slanted and the letters are thinner. I have been watching every place to see if one is being sold. Check this high resolution photo of Sandy Magnus’s patch. I have looking where to buy a couple. |
p51
Member Posts: 1642
From: Olympia, WA
Registered: Sep 2011
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posted 11-21-2011 12:45 AM
My primary hobby is collecting US military items from the 40s, and I have seen dozens of variants in even the same production runs of patches. With NASA crews, I'd expect an almost infinite variety that nobody could collect them all, as so many were made in small runs, and I'd expect many crews just get their patches from some of the same places the fans would because they needed them in a certain timeframe.This is primarily why I don't collect space patches and would never pay anything other than the amounts you'd pay at the KSC gift shop for one unless of course it came directly from a specific astronaut. |
spaced out
Member Posts: 3110
From: Paris, France
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 11-21-2011 03:35 AM
The versions of the mission patches used by the crews of the Gemini and Apollo missions are pretty well established now, and those used prior to Apollo 13 are in general very rare. Many were almost certainly single runs and were never available to the public.From Apollo 13 onwards the patches used by the crews were generally commercial versions but still many are scarce today. Some crews also had special limited runs of patches made for them and these patches are again very rare and valuable. In terms of NASA 'meatball' patches we now have five distinct varieties that were worn by the crews of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions over a period of just over a decade. The early white bordered versions are all extremely rare and were never commercially available. It looks now like the first blue bordered version might also be a rare one, leaving only the final version relatively easy to find. |
benguttery
Member Posts: 547
From: Fort Worth, TX, USA
Registered: Feb 2005
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posted 11-21-2011 10:57 AM
I have several album pages full of variations of this patch. I will now have to look closely at them to see what I have. Thanks! |
spaced out
Member Posts: 3110
From: Paris, France
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 11-22-2011 04:22 AM
I would be interested to hear how many people out there have examples of this patch.Since we haven't really been looking for it until now it's difficult to judge the relative rarity of the two patches but my impression is that the Type IV is significantly harder to find. |
spaced out
Member Posts: 3110
From: Paris, France
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 12-13-2011 08:32 AM
John Bisney pointed out to me that this patch was also used by the Apollo 9 crew. Looking at the photos in detail they wore this patch on one of their sets of blue flight suits, alongside the crew patch, on the recovery ship after the flight. Their other set of suits had a white bordered Type III meatball and no mission patch. |
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