The Retrorocket Emblems is proud to announce the sale of the Apollo 4 concept patch, the first of at least three concept patches in a series.
Apollo 4 was the first test flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle, the workhorse of the Apollo program. This launch was a complete, "All Up" test of all of the major components of the Saturn V rocket rather than a staggered iteration of various components launched and tested separately. This was the first time the S-IC first stage and S-II second stage flew as well. The launch occurred on November 9, 1967 and lasted 9 hours, culminating in a splash down in the Pacific Ocean near Midway Island.
The mission tested nearly all aspects of a Lunar mission including achieving parking orbit of the S-IVB and CSM, re-ignition of the S-IVB, simulation of a lunar return by the CSM and a CM splashdown.
This patch is a conceptual patch and has been limited to 50 patches. The patch displays the identifications of the service, command and lunar modules as used on the mission. The separated S-IC second stage is visible and shows the S-IVB jettisoning the S-II stage. Three large stars are in memorial of astronauts Virgil Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, the three smaller stars symbolize the 3 orbits of the Apollo 4 mission.
This is the first patch design by Liem Bahneman.
Special thanks to Timothy Gagnon for his guidance and invaluable input.
