HEMPHILL, TX – The Patricia Huffman Smith NASA Museum ‘Remembering Columbia’ in Hemphill is pleased to debut a commemorative mission patch to be sold in its gift shop.
The ‘Hail and Farewell’ patch is a creation of artist Tim Gagnon, who has has designed patches for spaceflight missions, including the Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs, since 2004.
The patch was inspired by the book ‘Bringing Columbia Home’ by Mike Leinbach and Jonathan Ward.
The graphic art attempts to illustrate the valiant effort to recover the STS-107 crew and orbiter in 2003. It is also a tribute to the thousands of volunteers, federal, state and local officials who assembled in Sabine County to get the job done. It is because of those American heroes that the astronauts were returned to their families and the cause of the tragedy was discovered.
The patch depicts the STS-107 mission insignia gliding to a landing at the Shuttle Landing Facility runway, escorted by a NASA T-38 jet aircraft performing the ‘Missing Man’ tribute. The seven large five-pointed stars represent the seven states Columbia flew over on its flight home and were later searched during the recovery effort. Above them, shining in the sky, are the seven stars of the constellation Columbia (the dove) to honor the crew. The other two stars pay tribute to Charles Krenek and Jules Mier, Jr. who were killed in a helicopter crash during the search efforts.
The embroidered five-inch patch incorporates 16 thread colors with a metallic gold overlock border and iron-on backing.
The design was created with help from Dr. Jorge Cartes of Madrid, Spain and Nathan Moeller of The Woodlands, Texas.
The ‘Hail and Farewell’ commemorative patch is exclusively available at the ‘Remembering Columbia’ Museum gift shop.
The Patricia Huffman Smith NASA Museum ‘Remembering Columbia’ serves as a memorial to the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy and as an educational facility dedicated to creating science and technology-inspiring learning opportunities for children and adults. Learn more at http://www.NASAColumbiaMuseum.com.
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Patricia Huffman Smith NASA Museum 'Remembering Columbia' 