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Dryden's Pestana designed STS-93 patch
STS-93, which features Eileen Collins' command of the Space Shuttle Discovery, began its mission July 22. Collins' crew asked Pestana before his assignment to Dryden, if he would design the emblem for their STS-93 mission. The patch designed depicts the Space Shuttle in flight after deploying its primary payload, the Chandra Advanced X-Ray Astronomical Facility. Chandra is one of a series of NASA orbiting observatories. On the patch, the Chandra telescope is focused on a distant galaxy, one of the objectives of the mission. The curved border between the two spacecraft symbolizes the separation between our known world, and the unknown that is yet to be discovered. The idea for the patch came from Pestana's children Jill, 9, and Steven, 6. His children also selected the colors of the design. National flags accompany the crews' names. For example, Astronaut Mike Tognini will have France's flag by his name. During Pestana's previous assignment as an operations engineer for the International Space Station Program, he was commissioned a number of times by the astronauts to design their Shuttle mission patches. His mission patch creations include STS-59, STS-62, STS-69, STS 83, STS-86, STS 89 and STS 94. He also created numerous paintings depicting aviation and space themes. For example, he recently completed a painting depicting the NASA DC-8 flying laboratory penetrating the eye of a hurricane during last year's CAMEX-3 (Convection and Moisture Experiment) deployment. |
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Responsible NASA Official: John Childress For questions, contact: Dryden Web Group Page Curator:WD-Team Modified: August 18, 1999 |
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