[FPSPACE] Expedition 9 press kit

[DwayneDay]

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Jones <clj at panix.com>

>Several interesting things and some questions:  Mars and the Moon
appear on this patch, suggesting a tie-in with resident Bush's recently
announced space plan.  Odd, since the tie-in is that he wants to move away
from ISS.  The shuttle appears on the patch, though it's almost certain that
this expedition will never see a shuttle visit the station.  If I were writing
this copy, I wouldn't have said "indivisible partnership"; it's a nice
sentiment, but hardly certain.  The use of the eagle is interesting as well,
it sure looks exactly like what we call an American Eagle, and the bald eagle
is exclusively a North American bird.  And I'm confused about "common memory"
and "eagle spirit" (and the capitalization of Human Space Flight).  As to the
stars, there are (from top right to bottom left) 6 gold 5-pointed stars, 1
blue 6-pointed star, 3 gold 5 pointed stars (all on the eagle's left wing),
5 red 5-pointed stars around the eagle's neck, and 7 5-pointed gold stars
on the eagle's right wing.  I figure the 6-pointed star, a/k/a Star of David,
is for Ramon, and the number of gold stars matches the remaining crew on
Columbia, Challenger's last crew, and the Apollo 1 crew.  So the 5 red stars
must be for Soviet/Russian cosmonauts, and 4 died in flight.  Who's the 5th?
Are they counting Bondarenko (ground test fire fatality, somewhat similar to
Apollo 1)?

*********

Keen eye.

But this patch reminds me that the most effective ones are often the simplest.  When they try to cram too many ideas and symbols into them, it gets jumbled.  Perhaps it is best to try and come up with a single unifying idea and focus on that.

I actually have a wall in front of my desk covered with STS patches.  My favorites are the ones that go light on the extras.  I particularly like one from around STS-41 (I'd have to check) which uses a Mercury capsule as an outline around the shuttle.  Clever.



DDAY