When JFK challenged our nation to “land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth” it was a bold ambitious program. The 50th Anniversary of the “task accomplished” called for a bold, ambitious commemorative patch.

Well today it exists!

The montage depicts JFK at Rice University on September 12, 1962. To the right is Freedom 7 taking our first Astronaut into space and on the left, Gordon Cooper pilots Faith 7 on the final Project Mercury mission in 1963.

From there clockwise we see the necessary steps accomplished during Project Gemini towards the goal of flying Apollo. The last patch in that inner circle honors the Apollo 1 crew. In the outer row, beginning at lower left we display patches for each Apollo mission 7, 8, 9, and 10. Then the final four patches commemorate the flight of Apollo 11: launch, landing, “one small step” and splashdown “returning them safely to Earth.”

All 16 patches are created by combining woven images and embroidery and are mounted on “lunar gray” twill material 18 inches in diameter. The center round patch is 4 inches in diameter. It depicts Tranquility Base post flight.

This design was created by Tim Gagnon of Titusville, FL & Jorge Cartes of Madrid, Spain.