Designing Space Mission Patches: what does it take?

Tim Gagnon was born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut. A fascination with space exploration came early as did an interest in art. Like many others of his generation Tim remembers watching the missions of his childhood heroes on a small black and white television with “rabbit ears” that could receive few broadcast stations. For his 16th birthday gift in 1972 his parents arranged for Tim and his father to attend the launch of Apollo 17 as invited guests of NASA. 

Ever since reading about the design of the Skylab 1 patch in an article written by the artist Frank Kelly Freas in 1973, Tim dreamed about creating a patch for a flight crew, to use his artistic talent to contribute to the space program. He came close in 1985 when Bob Crippen invited him to submit designs for the first shuttle mission scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, STS-62A. That mission was canceled after the Challenger accident. 

In 2004 his dream finally came true when astronaut John Phillips selected Tim to design the emblem for the Expedition 11 mission to the International Space Station. When the Expedition 11 patch was unveiled, Tim was contacted by Dr. Jorge Cartes of Madrid who congratulated him and spoke of how he also wanted to design mission patches. Tim responded that if the opportunity ever arose again, they would collaborate. 

In 2007 Tim was selected by the STS-126 Crew to design their mission emblem. Knowing how much it meant to participate, Tim invited his pen pal Jorge to join him on this project. The STS-126 crew was so happy with the result that they recommended Tim and Jorge to the STS-127 crew. As each patch was completed, Tim and Jorge were recommended to more flight crews. Since 2008 they teamed to work with the astronauts of the following Space Shuttle crews: STS-129, STS-132 and STS-133*. NOTE: this is the full story about the STS-133 patch http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-030711a.html 

The end of the Space Shuttle Program did not slow down demand. Tim and Jorge were proud to work with the following crews serving aboard the International Space Station during Expeditions 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 34, One Year, 47, 48, 53 and 55. 

Tim has continued to build a reputation as someone easy to work with and increasingly in demand.

Email: KSCartist@aol.com