A history of ESA mission patches

A history of ESA mission patches

Take some inspiration from our gallery of past ESA space patches

Published: October 11, 2015 at 11:00 am

In 2015, Tim Peake will become ESA’s first British astronaut when he boards the International Space Station as part of Expedition 46/47.

His personal six-month mission will be called Principia after Isaac Newton’s famous book on gravity, but the patch can represent the ISS, his mission or any aspect of space.

Past ESA space patches have tried to inspire humanity to strive for the stars and beyond.

Have a look through them here.

French astronaut Jean-Loup Chrétien became the first western European in space when he flew to the Salyut 7 space station.
Ulf Merbold was the first non-American to fly on a Space Shuttle on mission STS-9.
Helen Sharman was the first Briton in space as part of Project Juno, a collaboration with the Soviet Union.
In the STS-55 patch the rainbow symbolised the hope for a brighter tomorrow.
The Soyuz TM-24 logo was designed by artist Fédérica Matta.
The design for mission STS-95 showed the shuttle rising over the sunlit limb of the Earth.
Umberto Guidoni was the first European to fly to the ISS. The ten stars represent the children of the crew.
The patch for the Soyuz TMA-3 mission featured Spanish hero, Don Quixote.
The white and red crescents on the STS-120 logo represent the future targets of human exploration: the Moon and Mars.
Frank De Winne was the first European commander of the ISS. His mission patch represented the Earth and the ISS as oases for life.
Expedition 20 was the first time the ISS had a crew of six people, represented by the stars at the top of the patch.
The boarder of this logo represented the flags of all countries that took part in Soyuz TMA-20 mission.
The shape of the patch for the crew of STS-134 was based on the international atomic symbol.
Expedition 36's patch was made to emulate the shape of the ISS itself.
The mission of current ISS resident Alexander Gerst was named after the famous photo of our planet taken by Voyager 1.
The design for Expedition 46, which Tim Peake will a part of along with five others, has already been finalised.
The Soyuz TM-24 logo was designed by artist Fédérica Matta.

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