Celebrating the Shuttle Program Coaster

This patch commemorates the Space Shuttle Program. The names of all orbiters border the patch with a gold symbol of Columbia and Challenger commemorating the loss of the crew and spacecraft. The stars surrounding the design represent all of the Space Shuttle missions. The blue stars at the bottom left represent the five crewed approach and landing tests of Enterprise. One gold star placed near the ‘RP’ in ENTERPRISE is a tribute to the crew of Challenger (STS-51L). One gold star placed near the ‘D’ in ENDEAVOUR is a tribute to the crew of Columbia (STS-107). The launch of STS-1 in the center-back of the design forms the astronaut pin symbol with the trajectory of another orbiter, representing DoD missions. Venus and Jupiter symbolize the Space Shuttle missions that launched satellites to those planets. The other symbols represent the breath and depth of the program missions. At the bottom we see the shuttle stack being rolled out to the pad, the landing of STS-135 and the orbiter atop he 747 carrier aircraft representing all those who toiled between missions preparing an orbiter for its next trip into space