Space Patch of the Month: STS-13 Black Cat Unofficial Crew Patch
Following STS-9 Columbia in 1983 was not STS-10 but STS-41B. Why? The STS-number-number-letter designation system was meant to convey more information about a given Shuttle mission. NASA anticipated dozens of Shuttle launches per year from two different launch sites, and these missions were planned years in advance.
The first number represented the fiscal year (not the calendar year) in which the mission launched [1]. The second number, either a "1" or a "2", represented the mission's launch site. The Kennedy Space Center in Florida was designated "1" while Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, meant for polar orbital military-focused missions, was designated "2". The letter represented the mission's launch sequence in its fiscal year. For example, STS-41B tells us it was the second Shuttle mission for fiscal year 1984 and launched from Florida.
It is a shared belief that the STS-number-number-letter scheme was also implemented due to NASA Administrator James Begg's triskaidekaphobia, or fear of the number 13. No crewed American space mission has been designated "13" since the Apollo 13 near-disaster in 1970.
STS-41C Challenger was originally designated STS-13. Playing into the unlucky connotation of the number 13, pilot Dick Scobee designed a crew patch depicting symbols of bad luck, specifically a large black cat and a large number "13". The Space Shuttle orbiter flying underneath the cat alludes to the superstition of walking under a ladder bringing bad luck. The red names lining the bottom of the patch are the crew's nicknames— "Crip" for commander Bob Crippen, "Dick" for Dick Scobee, "TJ" for Terry Hart, "Ox" for James van Hoften, and "Pinky" for George Nelson. It's estimated between 20 and 50 patches were produced in total, not including the replicas that have popped up over the years.
According to mission specialist James van Hoften, the patch did make its way into space. The mission even landed on Friday, April 13, 1984.
[1] For example, the 1985 fiscal year ran from October 1, 1984 to September 30, 1985.
Bibliography
Collom, Robert B. "Behind the Space Shuttle Numbering System." NASA, 2016. https://www.nasa.gov/missions/space-shuttle/behind-the-space-shuttle-mission-numbering-system/
James D. A. van Hoften oral history. Johnson Space Center, 2007. https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/vanHoftenJD/vanHoftenJDA_12-5-07.htm
This post was written entirely without the use of AI (sorry HAL)
Comments