STS-101 Variations

Submitted by liem on Fri, 03/15/2013 - 13:11

Every issue of a NASA patch will have several variations due to a number of contributing factors:

Crew change
Manifest change
Mission cancellation/reschedule
Artwork change

The STS-101 mission emblem had several of these impact the design and subsequent issues of the patch. This patch has at least 5 identified variations and I will try to document them here.

"Changes in crew personnel have been made [to STS-101]. Cosmonauts Yuri I. Malenchenko and Boris V. Morukov, along with astronaut Edward T. Lu were moved to STS-106. Astronauts James S. Voss and Susan J. Helms, and cosmonaut Yury V. Usachev were added to the STS-101 crew. Malenchenko, Morukov and Usachev all represent the Russian Space Agency (RSA)." - NASA.

The STS-101 early issue is readily identified by the lack of "101" along the left edge in the red and white stripes as well as the addition of the Service Module and Progress spacecraft:

"The ISS is depicted in the stage of assembly completed for the STS-101/ISS-2A.2 mission, which consists of Unity, Zarya, the Service Module, and a Progress resupply spacecraft. "

STS-101 Original Issue

Wingtip Extended