Mission Patches
DesignMission patches have their origins in the military shoulder patches worn by the earliest astronauts, most of whom came from Air Force pilot backgrounds. The tradition of designing a unique patch for each mission was first brought to NASA by Air Force pilot and astronaut Gordon Cooper, and it has since migrated far beyond NASA itself. At MIT, if something can get a mission patch, it will.
Designing these patches has become one of my favorite recurring tasks. Each one is a small exercise in distillation: finding the visual logic that captures a specific mission, a specific place, a specific set of ideas, in something small enough to wear on a sleeve. The 37-parabola patch contains exactly 37 parabolas in its design, one for each arc of a particularly extraordinary microgravity flight. The Kansas flight patch interprets the state sunflower through a Fibonacci spiral, paired with the state motto, Ad Astra per Aspera, to the stars through difficulties, which required no adaptation at all for a space mission. The lunar mission patch for To the Moon to Stay puts our rover on the surface of the moon, which, eventually, it was.
In 2024 I got to go on one of these research flights myself, fulfilling a lifelong dream. In old NASA tradition, first-time flyers wear their name tag upside down for the duration of the flight, flipping it right side up on landing to mark the accomplishment. In the video, you can see mine.
+ Patch design: Olivia Verdugo
+ Photos and videos of the flight are courtesy Zero G
Mission Patches
DesignMission patches have their origins in the military shoulder patches worn by the earliest astronauts, most of whom came from Air Force pilot backgrounds. The tradition of designing a unique patch for each mission was first brought to NASA by Air Force pilot and astronaut Gordon Cooper, and it has since migrated far beyond NASA itself. At MIT, if something can get a mission patch, it will.
Designing these patches has become one of my favorite recurring tasks. Each one is a small exercise in distillation: finding the visual logic that captures a specific mission, a specific place, a specific set of ideas, in something small enough to wear on a sleeve. The 37-parabola patch contains exactly 37 parabolas in its design, one for each arc of a particularly extraordinary microgravity flight. The Kansas flight patch interprets the state sunflower through a Fibonacci spiral, paired with the state motto, Ad Astra per Aspera, to the stars through difficulties, which required no adaptation at all for a space mission. The lunar mission patch for To the Moon to Stay puts our rover on the surface of the moon, which, eventually, it was.
In 2024 I got to go on one of these research flights myself, fulfilling a lifelong dream. In old NASA tradition, first-time flyers wear their name tag upside down for the duration of the flight, flipping it right side up on landing to mark the accomplishment. In the video, you can see mine.
+ Patch design: Olivia Verdugo
+ Photos and videos of the flight are courtesy Zero G.
© 2026 Olivia S Verdugo