posted 05-24-2007 02:39 PM            

• A carrier recovery Jacket
  
• a plastic Apollo 15 patch cup holder
  
• and strangely — an Apollo 15 large patch with no crew names on it!

posted 07-18-2007 08:52 AM               

I don't remember seeing this mentioned before. Does anyone know what it represents?

NB: Image since modified to take into account findings of thread.

posted 07-20-2007 02:28 AM               

• 4 for fourth moon landing
  
• H for Hadley-Apennine region as the landing site

posted 07-23-2007 05:31 PM               

Today I received the following answer:

I checked with Mr. Conrad on the Apollo 15 patch. There is an XV stitched in the patch, but the other parts you were asking about does not seem to be part of the design. They are in two different locations on the patch leading me to believe they were not made by the same patterns. I have no true explanation for them.

posted 07-24-2007 03:43 AM               

"The mission patch for Apollo 15 was basically designed by the Italian dress designer, Emilio Pucci. He was, as I best recall, an aeronautical engineer, and had a good feeling for flight... The symbolism is of three stylized birds flying over the lunar surface, each indicating one of us who were on the flight.." - Al Worden, Command Module pilot.

posted 07-24-2007 08:21 AM               

The bottom open rounded hook in the website image is converted into a straight closed hook on the patch, but otherwise it's the same. On the gold XV version the hallmark is actually upside down.

posted 07-26-2007 03:04 PM              

In the book "All We Did Was Fly To The Moon," Command Module Pilot Al Worden is quoted as saying:

The mission patch for Apollo 15 was basically designed by the Italian dress designer, Emilio Pucci.

We had as a crew evaluated some 540 different designs for our crew patch. They appeared either too mechanical or too complicated or to have nothing to do with the flight, so finally, through a mutual friend, we asked Pucci if he would help us with the design.

Now, Pucci, as I best recall, was an aeronautical engineer and had a good feeling for flight. With his artistic nature, we felt that he would be very helpful in the patch design.

He did send us a design which was basically the same as the patch we eventually used, however, the colors were in the normal Pucci blues, purples and greens. We took his design, changed it from a square to a circular patch, made it red, white and blue and put a lunar background behind the three stylized birds that were the major Pucci contribution.

The symbology is of three stylized birds flying over the lunar surface, each indicating one of us who were on the flight.

The lunar surface behind the patch shows the landing site (next to Hadley Rille at the foot of the Apennine Mountains) and directly behind the stylized birds is a crater formation that spells "15" in Roman Numerals.

You can also see from the stylized birds that they fly in formation with one on top and two closer to the lunar surface, indicating those who actually landed.

posted 07-26-2007 03:46 PM               

And further on why do the initials of all astronauts and cosmonauts of that mission on the special 5-inch ASTP patches made by AB Emblem not show up in the NASA official logo?

These are special patches which all use the official logo as a base and have it modified following the needs.

posted 07-26-2007 03:47 PM               

Certainly arrangements could have been made to make a number of patches with the hallmark included.

Whether or not Pucci did this or one of the crew made those arrangements may never be known. If true, it would have been an appropriate tribute to the artist.

posted 07-27-2007 10:01 AM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by aerospace educator:
Sorry, I did not realize you were discussing fake patches.

---

I assume you're being deliberately provocative with your flippant use of the word fake to refer to one of the rarest and most sought-after patches of the Apollo era.

Using the word 'fake' to refer to a patch made by the official NASA patch supplier for use in official presentations by NASA and for the personal use of the Apollo XV crew themselves seems to be a stretch.

I'm sure Scott, Worden and Irwin, did not consider these patches that were made especially for them to be fakes, nor did the leaders of every country who received one mounted next to a flag of their nation that had been flown to the moon on the mission.

posted 02-11-2009 01:57 PM               

The images from photos taken at a meal onboard the recovery ship later the same day weren't so clear but I put the differences down to lighting angles and thread sheen. At the time it didn't really occur to me that they might have used different patches on different suits.

Following the realisation that the Apollo 12 crew did indeed wear different patches on their different suits I decided to take a better look at some of the other crews.

So, it looks like the Apollo 15 crew used a different patch on the flight suits they changed into after recovery, as shown in the images below.

The layout, border size, writing etc are all practically identical to the regular AB patch but the lunar surface has lots more dark areas and the "XV" is embroidered in grey thread rather then black.

It may be an AB variant but it's not one I've seen.

I'm hoping someone out there has an example so I can add a good scan to the site. Come on Bill...

posted 02-11-2009 04:57 PM               

I've just updated the original pictures with a couple of higher-res scans thanks to J.L. Pickering of RetroSpaceImages.com. The details are much clearer now.

posted 09-05-2009 11:49 AM               

As for "proofs" -- again, I would highly-doubt AB would do a proof patch in Pucci's colors. Indeed, according to Worden, the crew turned down Pucci's color scheme at the same time they rejected his proposal of making it a square patch.

posted 06-26-2012 12:34 PM               

My example was very discolored and had been previously mounted but it has a bare cloth back which makes it potentially vintage. That said, the fill stitch style visible in the outer white border and in the gray background areas looks to me to be quite modern so it may be a more recent reproduction patch.

With no manufacturer information to go on I've given this the AS15UNK3 identification on my site for now.