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As with the Apollo 9 crew the official pre-flight portrait session for Apollo 10 had the crew in their spacesuits with embroidered mission patches attached.

These patches are clearly visible in the closeup images on the right.

When they stepped out of the recovery helicopter onto the deck of the U.S.S. Princeton the crew had already changed out of their betacloth flightsuits and were instead wearing blue jumpsuits with an embroidered mission patch attached.

Interestingly-enough this patch is not the one worn for their pre-flight portrait photo.

The (Grumman) Crew Patch

The photographic evidence shows that the patch worn by the crew for the official pre-flight portrait is that shown on the right. This patch is the one most commonly referred-to as the Apollo 10 crew patch.

This patch was supplied to the crew by Grumman but the manufacturer is unknown.

It is pretty scarce but does turn up in private sales from time to time, particularly in the collections of former Grumman employees. Examples of this patch were also carried on the flight as souvenirs.

Good examples usually sell for a minimum of $200 to $350 [1], although a recent example on eBay sold for only $173.50, probably because the sale was limited to the US only.

The (Post-Flight) Crew Patch

The patch worn by the crew on their post-flight jump suits is the one shown on the right here.

It is not known who manufactured this patch.

Examples of this patch are also known to have been flown as souvenirs on the mission itself[2] and unflown examples sometimes appear on presentations created at the time of the mission[3].

Although not as well-known as the Grumman version of the Apollo 10 mission patch it appears to be at least as rare. That, and the fact that it was worn on the crew's post-flight jumpsuits are certainly enough to qualify it as a second crew patch for the Apollo 10 mission.

Four examples of this patch recently sold on eBay - three were sold individually for $532[4], $480[5], and $311[7] and the other was sold in a lot which included an Apollo 9 crew patch for a total price of $867[6]. The most recent example of this patch was sold on Astro-Auction for $335[8]

[1] e.g. eBay item no. 150185584910 Nov 26, 2007 sold at $301.51 ; eBay item no. 200129325580 July 18, 2007 sold at $214.50
[2] e.g. Swann Spring 2007 lot 99.
[3] e.g. Heritage auction September 2007 lot 25105 an unflown patch mounted with flown flag from collection of Joe Garino - and lot 25109 a patch affixed to crew signed photo.
[4] eBay item no. 150221818754 Mar 9, 2008 sold at $532
[5] eBay item no. 150225020659 Mar 16, 2008 sold at $480
[6] eBay item no. 150221526288 Mar 8, 2008 sold at $867
[7] eBay item no. 150231533999 Apr 6, 2008 sold at $310.99
[8] Astro-Auction item no. 1210551187 sold May 11, 2008 sold at $335
Apollo 10 Mission Patch Gallery
Crew Patches AB Emblem Lion Brothers

This patch, produced for Grumman by an unknown manufacturer, is the design worn by the Apollo 10 crew for their pre-flight portrait. [4" / 104x104mm]

This patch, also produced by an unknown manufacturer, is the design worn by the Apollo 10 crew on their post-flight jumpsuits. [4" / 99x111mm]

The AB Emblem patch resembles the version worn post-flight by the crew but there are many small differences. The AB version has a rounded base whilst the crew version has a point. The APOLLO text is in black versus the crew version's dark blue. More obviously, the shadows on the "X" are distinctly two-tone on the crew version. The antennae of the LEM on the AB version are 'spanner'-shaped whilst on the crew version they are 'mallet'-shaped. [4" / 101mm]

This variant of the AB Emblem patch uses dark blue thread for the inner border and background where the version on the left uses black. The stitching is overall somewhat finer than on the other version.

The Lion Brothers Apollo 10 patch closely-resembles the Grumman crew patch but the coloration is subtly different (e.g. in the LEM rocket trail and the left half of the CSM trail). In addition, there are some differences in the design e.g. the presence of craters to the left of the base of the X. [4" / 99x106mm]

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