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Enos was the second chimpanzee launched into space by NASA. He was the first chimpanzee, and third hominid after cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov, to achieve Earth orbit. Enos's flight occurred on November 29, 1961. This is a patch commemorating his spaceflight. It is 4" wide. 

 

Project Mercury was NASA first major project toward putting an American on the moon. Seven astronauts were selected to undergo these missions to evaluate how human's performed in space. 
 
Each of the mercury spacecraft was adorned with unique artwork of various styling reflecting the astronaut's chosen name for their spacecraft. While some of the artwork was simple lettering, the more flourished artwork was painted by artist Cece Bibby. 
 
The "official" Mercury patches that have been in circulation for decades are a notoriously lackluster series of patches. Eventually a set of simple, round patches were produced that more faithfully reproduced the spacecraft's respective artwork, but this set is hard to find and has been out of production for a long time. 
 
Originally I had planned to augment that set with just two designs: "Delta 7" and "Freedom 7 II" fantasy patches for two missions that never came to be. While Deke Slayton's "Delta 7" artwork is purely fantasy, Shepard's second flight actually has artwork on the capsule at the National Air and Space Museum. 
 
To differentiate these patches from the other sets, I have designed to them to appear as they did on the corrugated metal skin of the spacecraft.   
 
 

Ham the Astro Chimp was launched on a sub-orbital flight on January 31, 1961 atop a Mercury-Redstone rocket as part of Project Mercury. The name “Ham” was given to the chimpanzee only after his successful mission. NASA was concerned with the potential of bad publicity surrounding the possibility of a failed mission with a named chimp on board, so until after his mission, Ham was known as “No. 65” and among his handlers, he was known as “Chop Chop Chang”.

The Apollo-Saturn 201 (AS-201) mission was an unmanned suborbital flight to test the Saturn IB launch vehicle and the Apollo Command and Service Modules. It was the first flight of the two-stage Saturn IB. The objectives of the flight were to verify the structural integrity, launch loads, stage separation, and operation of subsystems of the Saturn 1B, and evaluate the Apollo spacecraft subsystems, heatshield, and mission support facilities. The patch depicts the Saturn IB rising atop a column of fire and smoke and the Command Module re-entering the atmosphere.

The Pegasus satellite program was a series of three American satellites launched in 1965 to study the frequency of micrometeorite impacts on spacecraft. All three Pegasus satellites were launched by Saturn I rockets, and remained connected with their upper stages.
 
In November of 1965, Elliot See, Jr. and Charles Bassett II were selected as the prime crew of Gemini IX. Bassett and See were killed on February 28, 1966, when their T-38 trainer jet crashed. 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of their selection as the prime crew. The patch celebrates their selection and remembers their contribution to the US space program.
Patch design depicts one of the astronauts on an EVA with their capsule in the foreground and Earth below. The astronaut is reaching toward the moon, the ultimate goal of the space program at the time. 
 

 

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. 

 

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