Gemini 7

“Gemini 7 was to be a two-week mission with mostly medical experiments being conducted. Therefore, we wanted an insignia that would signify medicine and endurance, much like a long-distance runner ... The artwork on the Gemini 7 patch was done by NASA artists.”

—Jim Lovell, from All We Did Was Fly to the Moon

The Gemini 7 patch shows an Olympic torch, symbolic of the marathon-like 14-day mission. Souvenir patches include the astronaut names, but they were not present on the original design nor the patches that the astronauts wore. However, the Gemini 7 patch hung on the wall of the MOCR (Mission Operations Control Room, aka Mission Control) does include the crew names.

It is notable that on this flight, the very first to be launched after Gemini 5, the patch was worn not on the right breast — as stipulated by Administrator Webb’s memo — but on the right arm. This long-duration mission utilized a special “lightweight” suit, designated G5C, and photos show that the arrangement of ports on the breast of this suit necessitated the re-location of the NASA insignia from its normal location on the left breast, to the right breast. Thus the Gemini 7 mission patch ended up on the arm of the suit rather than the breast. For Gemini 6, 8 and 9, the patch was placed on the right breast as directed by Webb. Curiously, the patch returned to the right shoulder for the last 3 Gemini missions.

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NASA photo S65-54129
Artwork for the Gemini 7 patch. This was only the third crew patch ever, and it looks like the standard of preparing “camera-ready” artwork had not yet been established. Indeed, it may not have been started until sometime in the early Apollo program.

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A Gemini 7 patch that includes the crew names. “GEMINI SEVEN” at the top is redundant, since “VII” appears in the body of the design. While not worn by the crew, this variant was carried on the flight as souvenirs. This actually matches the version that was hung in the MOCR. Thanks to Donnis Willis for this image.

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A reproduction embroidered Gemini 7 patch by Randy Wagner. Just like the “real thing,” this patch does not include the astronauts names. There is a rather peculiar protrusion on the nose of the Gemini spacecraft.
83mm dia

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An incredibly faithful remake of the crew-names version of the patch. This was done by Chris Spain in 2011.
96mm dia

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The 2010 remake by AB Emblem. This includes some of the oddities of the flown patch — one of which is that the patch isn’t actually round, but somewhat oblate. Another being that the top of the torch handle doesn’t align with the bottom.
84mm w × 81mm h

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Yet another version with crew names — but without the mission designation. Like the artwork — but unlike the patch worn by the crew — this one has no border.
104mm dia

Detail from NASA photo 65H-1895
The Gemini 7 patch can be seen on the right arm of Lovell’s lightweight G5C pressure suit. The shoulder articulation of this unique suit did not allow placement of the patch on the shoulder. It can be seen here that the embroidered patch has a white rim.

Crew

Design

Gemini 7