NASA is commemorating their 50th anniversary with a logo honoring those responsible for six crewed moon landing missions with this logo, featuring a gold symbol representing flight overlaid by Earth and Moon images.
Michael Collins designed the initial mission patch, featuring an American bald eagle clutching an olive branch in its beak with Earth as the backdrop. It alluded to the popular quote “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.
The Eagle
The eagle is one of the world’s most striking symbols, so it should come as no surprise that it features prominently in apollo missions logo. Representing power, strength, freedom, liberty, majesty and religious devotion across cultures (Christianity included), it also serves as a sacred symbol – often depicted in scripture and used as an emblem for divine strength as seen in Book of Revelations Revelations depicts it using it as its central emblem. Furthermore it’s used as the central emblem on American flag flag as well as several patriotic emblems with various patriotic meaning.
NASA took years of unmanned tests on their spacecraft and rocket to prepare for its inaugural Apollo mission, but tragedy struck with Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee’s deaths during a prelaunch test on January 27, 1967 – ultimately delaying crewed flights until they had developed an improved command module (CM) and lunar landing system.
As part of their monumental effort, the astronauts wanted a special patch to commemorate it. Unlike previous patches that featured their names prominently, this design would omit all astronauts so as to represent all those involved with making it possible. They chose an eagle from National Geographic book on birds for inspiration before adding olive branches since eagles often carry olive branches in their beaks.
The image created from this lunar landing was stunning and powerful. An eagle with wings extended was depicted alongside images of Saturn, Moon, and nebulas in its background; his gaze pointed toward Saturn to represent humanity’s future in space; it was surrounded by red, white, and blue representing America and finally encased by gold to signify a golden age of space flight that had begun with this lunar landing.
Additionally, the astronauts customized an eagle’s eyes into stars to show that it was pointing the way toward the Moon. Once satisfied with their creations, they sent it off to Washington in order to have it rubber-stamped.
The Olive Branch
The original logo featured an American eagle holding an olive branch in its talons to represent that its crew were traveling to the Moon “in peace for all mankind.” Olive branches have long been seen as symbols of peace – they even appear in Genesis 8:11 when Noah sent out a dove from the Ark and it returned carrying an olive branch as part of its message (Genesis 8:11). Romans adopted this image and it has become ubiquitous on flags worldwide representing peace. Christian art frequently features this motif to represent God’s love.
Olive branches represent President Kennedy’s challenge that astronauts would safely return home after returning from space, thus fulfilling it. The new Apollo 50th anniversary logo differs slightly from its original. The three central stars have been moved diagonally beside “50,” while a white arc that extends through “Apollo” reminds one of an element featured in NASA 60th anniversary logo introduced earlier this year to commemorate their lunar landing mission; its white color represents Earth limb as seen from space.
Additionally, an arc surrounding both Moon spheres displays “Apollo” and “Next Giant Leap”. This pays tribute to both hard work, tradition, and dedication of NASA’s Apollo program as well as to their international partnerships in space exploration.
The newly designed emblem also incorporates the names of Apollo crew members who participated in its various missions, as a nod to how it truly took a team effort at NASA and elsewhere to execute this incredible program.
The Moon
The Moon is one of the planets in our solar system. It’s a large spherical rocky body with a metallic core that orbits approximately one fifth the size of Earth, featuring an extremely flattened surface dappled with dark spots and brighter areas, rotating at roughly the same speed but having longer days than our own due to tidal locking between Earth and Moon causing both to pull against each other to slow rotational speeds down over time.
On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history when they set foot onto the lunar surface at Sea of Tranquility for the first time – marking humankind’s first step onto another planet. To commemorate this historic achievement, an original logo for Apollo included a large letter “A” with Orion positioned so its three central stars spanned its bar. On its right, an illustration depicting Earth was shown, while below this was Moon depiction; both featured spheres depicted, along with double trajectory between them that passed behind both spheres and through Orion’s three central stars!
NASA updated their logo for the 50th anniversary of Apollo program to commemorate their deaths during a training accident for its initial flight in January 1967 – three astronauts named Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee died as a result of fire that broke out from their command module during test firing of Saturn V rocket.
NASA is hard at work preparing for another giant leap forward, and their new logo represents this effort. The silver spacecraft and orange rocket in their logo represent Apollo spacecraft that will carry astronauts to and beyond the Moon; their trajectory passes over the white moon in their design symbolizing their goal to return there one day. Their dedication embodies all those involved with this historic effort.
The Stars
In 1969 and 1970, six Apollo astronauts traveled to the Moon for about 20 days of exploration and remained there for approximately the same amount of time. It marked humanity’s first journey onto another celestial body; an achievement to remember. Their logo represented this historic program – it featured an American eagle holding an Olive Branch as its national emblem and an olive branch as a peace sign; this design was inspired by Artemis, Goddess of Hunts who can often be found with her pack of hunting hounds in Greek mythology.
NASA’s Apollo Programs were the third human spaceflight endeavor after Project Mercury and Project Gemini. Their purpose was to test advanced crewed spacecraft while also preparing for lunar landing missions through their command and service module (CM).
As a tribute to all those involved, NASA employees and contractors created a symbolic representation of Apollo missions as an act of unity among teamwork among people from diverse backgrounds. Their efforts symbolized national pride as they sought new frontiers of discovery while showing the power of cooperation among diverse workers.
This patch commemorating the inaugural piloted Apollo flight featured a silver CSM orbiting a white full Moon marked with a red figure 8 with three men aboard preparing for its lunar landing, passing along two distinct paths simultaneously.
On the outer borders were symbols of the United States flag and NASA vector; crew names appeared in small circles at the bottom. Furthermore, an eagle’s wings represented America’s pride and desire to reach for greater heights in space travel.
NASA’s creative teams working on Orion, SLS and Exploration Systems programs designed the Apollo Missions logo as a tribute to our past while honoring deep space exploration missions that are led by America. It also honors their hard work.