Following-on from the highly successful Hoot Gibson “Signature Edition” fundraising patch project for Taking Up Space launched earlier this year, the Space Hipsters Facebook group has just announced that a new patch in the series will be released very soon.
This time a patch has been designed to celebrate former NASA astronaut Fred Haise‘s role in the Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Test (ALT) project. Perhaps best-known for his role as the Lunar Module on the Apollo 13 mission, Haise went on to play an important role in the Space Shuttle program, culminating in being the commander of the first free-flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise, a version of the orbiter built to test the un-powered landing phase of the future Shuttle missions.
As with the previous patch, the design incorporates an embroidered version of the astronaut’s signature.
This “Signature Edition” patch will be available in three different versions:
• 50 examples with the embroidered signature, border, and “swoosh” executed in gold thread
• 100 examples with the embroidered signature, border, and “swoosh” executed in silver thread
• an unlimited number with the embroidered signature executed in white thread
The 150 limited edition patches will be mounted on numbered display cards hand-signed by Fred Haise himself for the fundraiser. The patches have been manufactured exclusively for the project by NASA’s official patch supplier A-B Emblem, and are being donated to the fundraiser by Chris Spain. Space Hipsters admin Lois Huneycutt, a long-time supporter of Taking Up Space, has generously volunteered to handle the packaging and mailing of all the patches, covering the costs herself as a donation to the cause.
All funds raised will be going to Taking Up Space, with payments being made directly as donations to the non-profit.
Reservations for the patches are set to open on April 28, with an announcement to be made on the Space Hipsters group on that day which will include details of how to reserve.
Note that with the last project all the gold patches were reserved within a few hours, and all the silvers within around a week, so if you are interested you’ll need to be ready on the day.
Full details of the project can be found on this Space Hipsters post.