Space Patch of the Month: SpaceX Crew-3 Endurance
SpaceX Crew-3 was the third operational flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft under NASA's Commercial Crew Program and carried a crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station. It launched from the Kennedy Space Center on November 11, 2021 and was the maiden flight of Crew Dragon Endurance, paying homage to Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition and the teams at NASA and SpaceX who continued training the crew and preparing the spacecraft and launch vehicle for flight during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the top of the patch is a stylized Crew Dragon spacecraft moving upward beyond the edge of the circle, "representing an international effort that pushes to reach new heights of space exploration" (NASA). Within the flames projecting from the bottom of the capsule are the number 3, representing the third operational Crew Dragon flight to the ISS, and a dragon's head, symbolizing the spacecraft's namesake. Three blue four-pointed stars illustrate the mission's number while the four orange dots (or planets) represent the mission's four astronauts and humanity's future destination of the planet Mars. The insignia was designed by Greg Manchess, the designer of the previous Crew-1 and Crew-2 mission patches.
Commander Raja Chari and mission specialist 2 Kayla Barron were the first astronauts of NASA Astronaut Group 22 to fly in space [1]. Crew-3 was pilot Thomas Marshburn's third and final spaceflight and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer's first. Maurer served as mission specialist 1.
[1] Barron was part of the first group of women submarine warfare officers and served onboard the USS Maine, an Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine.
Bibliography
"Kayla Barron." NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/people/kayla-barron/
NASA patch description (dead link) accessed via "SpaceX Dragon Crew-3 mission patches" forum. http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum18/HTML/001667.html
This post was written entirely without the use of AI (sorry HAL). Go Cats!
Comments