Astronaut badge

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The terms astronaut badge or astronaut wings (German for example astronaut badges or astronaut wings ) are a group of US symbols and badges that are used to identify military and civilian persons who have undertaken space travel and / or have completed the associated training .

There are several astronaut badges that have different characters and are used by different US authorities. The US armed forces give their relatives their own astronaut badges, which are worn on the uniform as a badge of activity . All of these badges can also be found on the name tags of the blue training overalls often worn by NASA astronauts . The “NASA astronaut pin”, which was introduced by the NASA astronauts themselves, is not an official badge.

requirements

Margaret Rhea Seddon as a mission specialist with the NASA badge for civil astronauts on the nameplate

According to the definition of the International Aviation Association ( Fédération Aéronautique Internationale ), an astronaut is someone who has reached an altitude of more than 100 kilometers on a mission. This altitude limit - also known as the Kármán line - serves as a criterion for both NASA and the US Federal Aviation Administration .

The US armed forces have different requirements: In order to receive a military astronaut badge , a soldier must already have the US armed forces pilot's badge (the Aircrew Badge ), which is awarded to officers after completing flight school, and in addition to a space flight in more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) above sea level.

Civil badge

NASA badge

NASA badge for civil astronauts

The first US astronauts were members of the armed forces and therefore wore the corresponding military astronaut badges. With the selection of the first civilian astronaut aspirants, their own badge was created for them. This is especially on photos of the Space Shuttle - Mission specialists to see often, usually on the nameplate their blue overalls training. The emblem shows golden wings with a shooting star in between , which flies through an ellipse (symbol for an orbit ). Until 2004, this was the only civilian badge for astronauts in the USA, since all men and women to whom it was awarded acquired the astronaut badge through a NASA space flight or - in the case of seven pilots - through a space flight on the North American experimental aircraft X-15 of the United States Air Force .

FAA badge

FAA badge for civil astronauts

2004 succeeded the test pilot Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie , the first space flight without the participation of the US government, as they board the rocket-powered experimental aircraft SpaceShipOne of Scaled Composites several suborbital flights conducted. The Federal Aviation Administration gives since civilian pilots who carried out a successful space flight, also an astronaut badge as Commercial Astronaut (about: commercial air astronaut). Melvill and Binnie were the only holders of this badge until 2018, when Virgin Galactic pilots Rick Sturckow and Mark Stucky also crossed the 50-mile mark with the VSS Unity spaceplane .

Military badges

The Army Astronaut Badge in its three levels.
Susan Jane Helms as Lt. Gene. the USAF with the Senior -Astronautenabzeichen the USAF

Members of the US armed forces have their own astronaut badges, which, in addition to the uses described, are also worn on the uniform as an occupational badge. Each branch of the armed forces issues its own version of the astronaut badge. It consists of the standard United States Aviator Badge of the armed forces, on whose coat of arms the astronaut emblem is located, a shooting star that flies through an ellipse (symbol for an orbit ). The badges of the United States Army and the US Air Force are also awarded in three grades. The Senior Astronaut Badge is characterized by a star above the coat of arms, the Master / Command Astronaut Badge by a star with a laurel wreath .

US Army badge

The United States Army astronaut badge, introduced on May 17, 1983, is awarded in the grades Army Astronaut , Senior Army Astronaut and Master Army Astronaut . If the astronaut has not yet received an Aircrew Badge , it will first be awarded.

US Air Force badge

The United States Air Force issues its astronaut badge in three grades: Basic , Senior and Command . The badge consists of a standard US Air Force aviator badge on which the astronaut emblem is affixed. In the Air Force, the astronaut badge is not seen as a separate badge in addition to the badge of activity (as a pilot, weapons officer, navigator, etc.), but as an additional description. It is only awarded after a written application by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force after completing a space mission . Mission specialists who have the training, but not complete the mission and do not wear badges as a pilot or navigator, are as Observer (German: observers ) classified.

U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard badges

The astronaut badge for naval aviators of the United States Navy has no gradations and consists of the badge for naval pilots ( United States Naval Aviator ) or flight officers of the navy ( Naval Flight Officer Insignia ) with a centrally attached astronaut emblem.

United States Marine Corps and United States Coast Guard astronauts receive the same training and badges as the Navy.

NASA astronaut pin

Golden astronaut pin

Since 1963 there has also been a pin known as an astronaut pin , which was introduced by the NASA astronauts themselves and, unlike the other astronaut badges, is also worn on civilian clothing. Candidates who have successfully completed astronaut training will receive a silver pin; if they have successfully completed a space flight, they wear a golden needle. You have to pay for all of these needles yourself. Deke Slayton , who was excluded from the lunar flights due to medical problems, received a special version of this pin from the astronauts of the Apollo program , which had a diamond instead of the star of the shooting star.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b See United States Army Institute of Heraldry .
  2. ↑ a b See Oberg, 2005.
  3. ↑ See United States Department of Transportation, 2009
  4. ↑ Michael Sheetz: Virgin Galactic flies its first astronauts to the edge of space, taking one step closer to space tourism. CNBC, December 13, 2018, accessed December 14, 2018 .
  5. ↑ See Space Center Roundup, May 13, 1964. p. 8.