The HabForum

Not to steal his thunder, but Steve from this forum texted me this photo of patches that had been given to recognize various awards, such as space bowl and mission patch design. These were in a display case at SC. I didn't noice at first, but they have the same awards with Camp and Academy headings...



When did they issue those? I had never heard of them before that and have never seen one on eBay of any type. I'd love to get my mitts on one of the mission patch ones as I did our group's winning design and was quite proud of that. Those little shuttle stack pins are nice but man, I'd have loved to have gotten a patch for that!

I never saw one of those given out in all of my 12 times at Space Camp. Only the shuttle pins and maybe a certificate.

Wow, I have never seen those at camp either. Very interesting. I did see a 'Best Mission' or 'Outstanding Team' one waaay back when on eBay but lost the bid.

I got a nice e-mail from someone offline who said he'd been awarded one in 2000, so at least we can nail down that year. Probably about the same time the Space Academy patches seem to have vanished as well.
Looking at the design, I can see how redundant one of them would be. If your team kicked butt and won most of the awards, would you put 3 or 4 of these on a flight suit? Probably not. And the Mission Patch patch would seem a bit confusing to some. Almost like something saying, "this is a stand in for the real mission patch," or something to that effect... That said, I still like the idea better than the shuttle stack pins they give out now. Having personally designed and rendered the wining mission patch for my academy session, I selfishly would have liked such a patch, even if anyone who'd never attended SC would have no clue what it meant.
It must tell much about the mindset of people who've gone through space camp when you see how little of the stuff ever shows up online, eBay or at collector shows. I think I've bought almost every SC-related anything I've ever seen at aviation collectible shows. None has ever shown up at any military collector's show, and you do see mainstream NASA stuff at those things. The only things that turn up with any fequency are the flight suits, and I suspect most of them are sold or given away because the owners will never be able to fit into them again.

SpaceCanada wrote:Wow, I have never seen those at camp either. Very interesting. I did see a 'Best Mission' or 'Outstanding Team' one waaay back when on eBay but lost the bid.

Maybe it was this one. I'm not sure I recall where I found this photo now, but it sure isn't of a patch in my collection. When i went through SC this year, the adult programs only awarded for best shuttle mission, space bowl, mission patch and of course the right stuff winner. My team got all but the mission award.

I know these patches were given out at least as late as 2007 because i pulled enough of them tht summer from the storage room getting ready for graduation day. Aviation Challenge also handed out patches for its various awards as well. I actually have one of each of the AC, SC, and SA award patches in my collection but only because i worked there when they were being awarded.

Like everything SC, I guess we'll never be able to nail down exact timeframes for stuff like this.
I still think a patch would be great for the awards, but perhaps a tab that can go over or under the SC patch, sort of like Army Ranger or Special Forces tabs, would be a good idea for that. Better yet, maybe a smaller version of the Camp patch with a slightly different design and the words saying what it's for, like Boy Scout merit badges?
Man, I wish I knew someone at SC to run ideas like this past...

You certainly have some great ideas, p51!

SpaceCanada wrote:You certainly have some great ideas, p51!

Thanks, but SC might not agree (I know my wife sure doesn't, she'd call my ideas, "an unhealthy obsession" or something like that!
Several years ago, I designed a t-shirt for an aviation museum. I was surprised at the crummy stuff they had and sat down with their people and went through a list of stuff I thought would do well. I was shot down. Funny thing was, a year later I went back and found at least 2/3 of the stuff I'd suggested on sale in their gift shop. I assume someone took my list and passed it off as their own. Oh well, the end result is all that matters.

Happens to me every now and then in my freelance design career. Sometimes the client is not prepared for what I present to them, and they feel insulted because "they didn't think of it". So they blow me off and I come to find out later they liked the ideas after all, and paid someone else (who would work for cheaper) to implement my ideas. Such is the nature of the competitive and creative business. It's both flattering and insulting at the same time, but so long as you're paid for your time invested it's acceptable. The trick is to cover your a$$ and make sure you get payment in increments during the process rather than all at the end. I would suggest 30% to start, 30% at some middle progress point, and the remainder of the balance after finishing the job.

When I went through Space Academy in '04, these were given out. I still have the Space Bowl and Mission patch award patches hanging on my wall.

Dyna-Soar wrote:When I went through Space Academy in '04, these were given out. I still have the Space Bowl and Mission patch award patches hanging on my wall.

Which is what happened to most of them, I'd bet. I just can't see many of these being sewn onto anything. Which is probably why they went away from them, maybe?