50th Anniversary John Glenn Patch

On Feb 20th, 1962 John Glenn became the first American Astronaut to orbit the Earth. The flight of Friendship 7 is one of the most celebrated in US Space Program history. This patch design honors that accomplishment by incorporating elements of both of John Glenn's spaceflights. At the top is the name Glenn chose for his call sign that was painted on the side off his spacecraft. On the left is the Mercury 7 Astronaut Symbol. On the right is the gold US Astronaut Symbol. The Mercury capsule and orbital trajectory are borrowed from the STS-95 patch when Glenn returned to space aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1998. The seven stars represent the Mercury 7 Astronauts as well as the crew of STS-95. The anniversary date and the name of the man honored are at the bottom. Patch design created by Tim Gagnon of Titusville, FL and Dr. Jorge Cartes of Madrid, Spain.