STS-2 was the second Space Shuttle mission conducted by NASA, and the second flight of Space Shuttle Columbia. The mission launched on 12 November 1981 and landed two days later on 14 November. STS-2 marked the first time ever that a manned, reusable orbital spacecraft left the Earth for its second mission and returned to space.
The AB Emblem STS-2 patch has a plastic coated back. This example is enclosed in a Swissartex / Kennedy Space Certer packet. This is because Swissartex who had the contract with the Kennedy Space Center, could not supply their own version of the STS-2 patch so they bought in around 1,000 patches from AB Emblem to cover the short fall. There is a rubber stamp on the back of the card header which says: EMBLEM MFG. IN USA PACKAGED BY SWISSARTEX EMBLEM INC. (Other AB Emblem patches were bought in to cover short falls during this contract between 1983 - 1988, along with patches manufactured by Cape Kennedy Medals).
