For the offical crew portrait photos taken before the launch the Apollo 9 crew wore full Apollo spacesuits but in place of betacloth patches they had embroidered mission patches loosely fixed in place. The best-known of the official crew portraits, shown to the right, is S69-17590. Fortunately, very high res versions of this photo are available which allow us to see which patch they were wearing. |
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The patches are clearly visible in the detailed images on the right. Note the distinctive font used (particularly the "S"s) and the wide separation of the CSM and LM. |
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As with Apollos 7 and 8, when the Apollo 9 crew came on board the U.S.S. Guadalcanal from the rescovery helicopter they were wearing their betacloth overalls complete with betacloth crew emblems, but they did change into regular blue jumpsuits shortly afterwards and these had embroidered patches attached. On the right is detail from one of the photos that show the crew in these jumpsuits. Although the lettering is not clear, the design, especially the gap between the CSM and LM and the shape of the Saturn V rocket, seems to match that of the patch in the pre-flight portrait photo above. |
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The photographic evidence shows that the patch worn by the crew on their spacesuits for the official crew portrait, and on their post-flight jumpsuits is the patch shown to the right. The patch measures 3¼" (84mm) across.
Examples of this "crew patch" are also known to have been flown on the mission as souvenirs, alongside examples of the very similar-looking patch from another manufacturer shown below.
Unfortunately, it is not clear at present who manufactured either of these patches.
The crew patch is extremely rare. One of the few examples to sell recently was listed on eBay in a lot that also included an Apollo 10 post-flight crew patch. The lot fetched $867 in total[1].
According to James McDivitt the crew returned a delivery of patches that were intended to be flown because they lacked the red "D". What appears to be an example of this first version of the crew patch was recently sold[4] at a charity auction (for the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation) by Paul Weitz. You can view a scan here.
Very similar to the crew version. Patches of this design appear to make up at least half of all flown souvenir patches from the Apollo 9 mission that come to market.
Apart from the different font the easiest way to tell this from the crew version is that the escape tower on the Saturn V points to the "S" of Scott in this version. The patch measures roughly 3½" (89mm) across.
Unflown examples of this patch sold in December 2007 for roughly $300 and $400[2].
It is not known who manufactured this patch.
A striking larger version of the Apollo 9 mission patch, again similar to the crew design but with less of a gap between the CSM and LEM. This design also lacks the red fill in the "D" of McDivitt. The patch has a merrowed edge (no tail on the reverse) and measures 4" (101mm across).
I had originally thought this might be the type of patch rejected by the crew because they lacked the red "D" but it seems that's not the case as an early "redless D" version of the crew patch has since been identified.
Although this design was not used by the crew or carried on the mission it is a high quality patch and quite rare. The few examples to surface recently have sold for impressive sums. One example sold in March 2007 for $1101 and another sold recently on eBay for $455[3].
[1] eBay item no. 150221526288 Mar 8, 2008 sold at $867
[2] Aurora Fall 2007 auction Dec 1, 2007 : lot 328 sold at $293.75 (inc fees) and lot 329 sold at $411.25 (inc fees).
[3] eBay item no. 150172416416 October 22, 2007 sold at $455.
[4] Astronaut Scholarship Foundation Spring 2008 auction lot 9 sold at $620.
