STS-27 Mission Patch

STS-27 Mission Patch

This patch was designed by the crew of STS-27 for the Space Shuttle Atlantis mission in 1988. Robert Gibson, Guy Gardner, Richard Mullane, Jerry Ross, and William Shepherd all worked together to produce this vivid patch.

STS-27 was the second Shuttle mission following the Challenger Disaster and the patch design includes seven stars to commemorate the seven astronauts that died aboard the Shuttle two years earlier. The bright rainbow motif in the patch design symbolises a triumphant return to flight, through the idea of a rainbow following a storm. Remarkably Atlantis suffered serious damage to its heatshield during launch, in a situation similar to that which the Shuttle Columbia experienced in 2003. Columbia, and its crew, were tragically lost due to the damage it incurred, whilst Atlantis fortunately survived. Had it not, there is a strong chance that a disaster so soon after Challenger would have ended the Space Shuttle programme.

This particular patch was part of a collection of patches acquired by British-born professor of endocrine and metabolic surgery Anthony Goode, during his years working with NASA’s Life Sciences Division.