A tribute to space – Free eBook: “SPACE PATCHES – A Journey through the Cosmos"

[gabrielef71]

Hi !
Over the past nine months, I’ve poured my passion for space exploration into a project that I’m excited to finally share with you all.

“SPACE PATCHES – A Journey Through the Cosmos” is a completely free, non-commercial, educational eBook that showcases over 1,300 mission patches across 672 pages.
It’s a visual and historical tribute to human spaceflight, from the earliest Soviet and NASA missions to today’s launches of American and Chinese agencies and private companies.

This eBook is designed as a living reference that can grow and evolve alongside future space missions.
There are no ads, no paywalls, just a sincere offering to the spaceflight community.

Preview the book (79-page sampler): https://bit.ly/3F7PJzo
Download the full eBook + resources: https://bit.ly/4ddCrOn

I truly hope this community could enjoy the result of countless hours of research and design.
Your feedback would mean a lot and will help shape future editions.

Enjoy.

[Oersted]

You should probably mention, in this thread, that for people to see the full book you require them to subscribe to your mailing list by sending you their email address. Very fair requirement, so I used an email address for purposes such like this and downloaded your book. I scanned it with Windows Defender and found no issues with the pdf file.

The book is gorgeous. Thank you for your great piece of work!

A few constructive comments:

- P. 7, top line, small spelling error, "Shuttel".

- Regarding the early Soviet patches, it would be nice if you made it clear, under each patch, that it is not an official work, and perhaps mention the author of the patch. The danger is that these patches could end up elsewhere being described as "official patches". They are fan art and should be described as such.

- The reflection effect you have made under each patch is, I think, not necessary. It seems a bit gimmicky and doesn't go well with the clean and stylish look of the book in general. Just my opinion.
   

[Bean Kenobi]

And you say Ronald McNair flew twice his first flight : STS-41B (page 74 : "USA, 33, 1, MS") and STS-51L (page 82 : "USA, 35, 1, MS").

I expected to find NRO patches, but no... 

[gabrielef71]

You should probably mention, in this thread, that for people to see the full book you require them to subscribe to your mailing list by sending you their email address. Very fair requirement, so I used an email address for purposes such like this and downloaded your book. I scanned it with Windows Defender and found no issues with the pdf file.

The book is gorgeous. Thank you for your great piece of work!

A few constructive comments:

- P. 7, top line, small spelling error, "Shuttel".

- Regarding the early Soviet patches, it would be nice if you made it clear, under each patch, that it is not an official work, and perhaps mention the author of the patch. The danger is that these patches could end up elsewhere being described as "official patches". They are fan art and should be described as such.

- The reflection effect you have made under each patch is, I think, not necessary. It seems a bit gimmicky and doesn't go well with the clean and stylish look of the book in general. Just my opinion.
 

Hi, and thank you so much for your thoughtful feedback, I really appreciate you taking the time to read the book and share your impressions!

Regarding the note about the unofficial Soyuz patches: I do mention this on page 12 with the following clarification:

"This section includes all crewed missions for which an official or unofficial space patch exists. The patches shown for Mercury, Gemini (up to and including Gemini 4), Soyuz, and Soyuz T are unofficial designs, created after the fact or by enthusiasts, as no official patches were issued for these missions at the time."

That said, I understand your concern. If this wording isn’t prominent enough, I might consider adding an asterisk or note directly under the images, possibly including the name of the designer where known. Tracking down all the authors may be challenging, but I agree it's worth doing where possible to give proper credit and avoid future confusion.

As for the reflection effect beneath each patch, I added it as a visual touch, but it might not align with everyone’s taste.
I’ll wait to gather more opinions from readers before deciding whether to revise that part of the layout.

Lastly, thanks for spotting the typo on page 7 ("Shuttel"), I'll correct that in the next release.

[gabrielef71]

And you say Ronald McNair flew twice his first flight : STS-41B (page 74 : "USA, 33, 1, MS") and STS-51L (page 82 : "USA, 35, 1, MS").

I expected to find NRO patches, but no... 

Hi, and thank you for spotting that mistake, I really appreciate it! I'll correct that in the upcoming version 1.1 of the eBook.

That’s one of the great things about digital publishing, it's easy to make quick corrections and improvements based on helpful feedback like yours.

Regarding the NRO patches, I know! They’re on my to-do list for version 2.0 of the eBook.
I'm already working on them, and I’m looking forward to including them in a specific chapter in the future.

Thanks again for your thoughtful comments.

[Jim]

one thing I noticed is that you are showing all the patches for particular launches,  Often, there are NASA, contractor and Air Force patches for the same mission/launch.

Here are patches for MUOS-1

[Jim]

And for MER, there is just one project patch but two Air Force patches (one for each launch)

[Jim]

Juno

[gabrielef71]

one thing I noticed is that you are showing all the patches for particular launches,  Often, there are NASA, contractor and Air Force patches for the same mission/launch.

Here are patches for MUOS-1

Thanks for pointing that out. In the book, I aimed to group patches based on the contractor or operator.
For example, in the case of ISS CRS missions, the same mission has a patch shown in the SpaceX Falcon 9 chapter and another in the NASA SpaceX CRS chapter. The same applies to SpaceX Crew launches, where NASA and Axiom have their own patches for the same mission.

As I mentioned in a previous comment, I'm currently working on a new NRO chapter. Some of those patches are also linked to SpaceX launches that already appear in the Falcon 9 chapter. There are certainly many more patches (Air Force ?) not yet included in the book, and I plan to organize and incorporate them into future editions as best as possible.

Your feedback and input are truly appreciated, it helps make the book better with each update!

[Jim]

one thing I noticed is that you are showing all the patches for particular launches,  Often, there are NASA, contractor and Air Force patches for the same mission/launch.

Here are patches for MUOS-1

Thanks for pointing that out. In the book, I aimed to group patches based on the contractor or operator.

You should do it by launch vehicle mission/launch, because not every mission/launch has either or both.  The government has put out more patches than contractors.  SpaceX has stopped for most of their missions and just makes graphic insignias.

Launches/Mission patches are produce by the following organizations  (Air Force and Space Force are interchangeable):

The government launch management agency NASA (KSC/LSP, Goddard, Lewis, Langley), USAF (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th Space, Launch Squadron, 45th LCSS or 6555th ASTG or 6595th ATG). A single launch can have both NASA and multiple Air Force patches.

The launch vehicle contractor

The launch range (45th SW, 45th Range Squadron, 1st or 2nd Range Ops Squadron )

The Mission/spacecraft procurement/Operator agency (NASA, Space Force, NRO, NOAA, Commercial User, etc) there can be multiple from this group.

The Spacecraft contractor
|

[Jim]

Thanks for pointing that out. In the book, I aimed to group patches based on the contractor or operator.
For example, in the case of ISS CRS missions, the same mission has a patch shown in the SpaceX Falcon 9 chapter and another in the NASA SpaceX CRS chapter. The same applies to SpaceX Crew launches, where NASA and Axiom have their own patches for the same mission.

That is only because you focusing on human related missions.  There are many more patches for the uncrewed launches and they don't fit in such categories. 

[Jim]

I can "help" if you want.  I have photos of patches from the attached list.   They are grouped by launch vehicle and label by LV tail number, payload and organization.

[gabrielef71]

I can "help" if you want.  I have photos of patches from the attached list.   They are grouped by launch vehicle and label by LV tail number, payload and organization.

Thank you so much that would be a huge help!
I'd be more than happy to include those patches. It’s great that you’ve already grouped them by launch vehicle, that structure will be really useful.

We’ll just need to figure out the best way to organize and integrate them into the Part III of the eBook to keep everything consistent.

[Jim]

Here was some quick and dirty way of putting them in a PDF 13 years ago.    I have much more to scan.  I will stop collecting when Atlas V flies out.
These aren't hi res, but individual scans are.  If you want them, maybe I could put the scans on Dropbox or something.

[Jim]

Here is the key to the labeling notation.

[Newton_V]

Some of my observations (essentially what Jim was saying):

The NRO missions have 2 "main" patches:  The "Launch Patch" and the "NRO (Mission) Patch".   I've seen a handful of "SV" patches (7 or , and of course there the 45th, 30th, 4 SLS, etc ones that are less popular, so to speak.

Some notes:
(1) The Launch Patch is also referred to as the Booster Patch, I'm guessing goes back to when Titan missions were identified with Booster "K-" and the "A-" and "B-", which I think referenced Titan IV with SRM and SRMU, respectively.
(2) Never saw the NRO/Mission patches for NROL-2 and NROL-3
(3) A few missions had multiple NRO/Mission patches:  NROL-45, NROL-129, and of course the semi-recalled preliminary NROL-71 patch that was originally in Vulcan (Klingon?) language, then changed to English.  I think NROL-25 might have had 2 as well, but not sure if the original mission name ever made it to a patch.
(4) As Jim mentioned, some of the recent SpaceX SLC-4 high-rate launches don't appear to have a Launch/Booster patch.
(5) The original NROL-33 patch (with the skulls), had to be redone after the NROL-39 (Octopus) over-reaction.  Even though they existed, they wouldn't sell the originals.  Years later they sold them off, along with the coins.

I wish I was as organized as Jim with his lists...

My favorites:  NROL-36, -35, -39, -71, -82, -101
Lamest:  NROL-85, -69

[gabrielef71]

I've decided to remove the registration process to make my eBooks truly accessible to everyone, no sign-up required.
The patch collections are now better organized into themed eBooks, including "Human Spaceflights," "Space Shuttle," "SpaceX," "Rocket Lab," and a special volume "A Year in Space 2025" featuring all the mission patches from the present year so far.

You can download everything freely from my blog:
https://spacepatches.blogspot.com/

Your feedback and suggestions are very welcome!
There's still a lot of work ahead, but the project is live and evolving.