Extremely rare embroidered Apollo 8 crew souvenir patch made in very limited quantities by Texas Art Embroidery for use by NASA on official presentations. The triangular, CM-shaped, white-bordered patch measures 4.5″ x 4″ and features a red ‘figure 8’ looping around the Earth and Moon to reflect both the mission number and the circumlunar nature of the mission. The surnames of the astronauts—Borman, Lovell, Anders—are stitched along the bottom of the eight. The initial design was developed by James Lovell, who reportedly sketched it while riding in the back seat of a T-38 flight from California to Houston shortly after learning of Apollo 8's re-designation as a lunar-orbital mission. In very fine condition.
The Apollo 8 crew did not wear an embroidered patch before, during, or immediately after their mission. As such, there is effectively no embroidered patch that qualifies as a Crew Patch for Apollo 8. The closest is this rare embroidered patch that was used in most official NASA presentations created at the time, with some examples also flown on the mission. This particular version of the Apollo 8 patch was worn by some of the technicians on their coveralls during the pre-flight suit-up operations, and it's also worth noting that Lovell wore this particular version of the Apollo 8 patch in 1970 on his flight suit during training for the Apollo 13 mission.
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