Patches for Next Shuttle Crew to Honor 7 Challenger Victims

The crew patch for the next space shuttle flight features symbols of the rebirth of American manned spaceflight and a seven-starred Big Dipper as a tribute to the seven Challenger crew members.

A picture of the five-color emblem released Tuesday by the space agency shows a stylized shuttle rising into the sky on a plume of fire and smoke and cutting through a red V-like vector. A multirayed sun creeps over the horizon and the Big Dipper hangs in the sky.

Around the edges of the circular patch are the last names of the five crew members--commander Frederick H. Hauck, pilot Richard O. Covey and mission specialists George D. Nelson, John M. Lounge and David C. Hilmers.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the sunrise represents a new beginning; the launch a safe mission, and the vector, the symbol for aeronautics on the original NASA insignia, a traditional strength of the agency.

The seven principal stars in the constellation of Ursa Major take the shape of the Big Dipper in the sky. The space agency said the dipper represents the seven crew members who died when the shuttle Challenger exploded on Jan. 28, 1986.

The next shuttle mission is targeted for June 2, 1988. Hauck’s crew members, all veterans of earlier shuttle missions, are to deploy a tracking and data relay communications satellite during the four-day trip aboard Discovery.