Space Mission Patches - Apollo 10 Patch

Crew:
Thomas P. Stafford
John W. Young
Eugene A. Cernan

Dates:
18-26 May 1969

Artist:
Allen Stevens

Apollo 10

"The Apollo 10 patch was based more on the mechanics and goals of the mission than the philosophy of the space program or the astronauts flying this mission... The patch was basically designed by the crew, primarily Young and Cernan, with a great deal of help from the artists at North American Rockwell. North American and Grumman eventually were the producers and primary suppliers of the patch".

--Gene Cernan, from All We Did Was Fly to the Moon

Stafford and Cernan flew together on Gemini 9A, and the patch for that flight is strikingly similar to this one. Both patches are in the shape of a shield, and the dominent design elements are the spacecraft and the mission objectives, with the mission number of the flight represented as a large Roman numeral in the middle of the design. In the case of the Apollo 10 patch, the word "Apollo" and the crew names were added; except for that, the verbal description applies to both patches.

The creator of this patch was unknown until May 2008, when Ed Hengeveld and Noah Bradley identified Allen Stevens of North American Rockwell as the artist.


[ap10-aw1] NASA photo ID: S69-31959 Taken: 25 Apr 1969		[ap10-bc1] Beta cloth version of the Apollo 10 patch. 76mm w × 80mm h

[ap10-em1] This embroidered patch is the version the crew wore for their "formal" portrait (see detail below). It was supplied to the crew by Grumman, the builder of the LM. 104mm w × 104mm h		[ap10-em2] The Lion Brothers embroidered Apollo 10 patch differs markedly from the patch at the left, though it follows the artwork more closely (note the attitude and shape of the LM ascent stage, for example). 99mm w × 103mm h

[ap10-em3] An embroidered variation of unknown origin. Matches the artwork very nicely.		[ap10-em4] Embroidered AB Emblem version of the Apollo 10 patch. The shape of the shield is more triangular than the artwork, and the typography used for the crew names is Eurostile rather than Eurostile Extended as in the artwork. 99mm w × 110mm h

NASA photo S69-34385
Portrait of the Apollo 10 crew.

This detail of the crew photo above shows that, like the Apollo 9 crew, the Apollo 10 crew wore embroidered patches (almost certainly ap10-em1) for their formal portrait.