FLOWN APOLLO 7 BETA CLOTH MISSION EMBLEM

Provenance:
Personal collection of lunar module pilot Walt Cunningham

Certificate:
Letter of authenticity from Walter Cunningham

Ronnie Walter Cunningham was an American astronaut (1932–2023), fighter pilot, physicist, entrepreneur and author. He was NASA’s third civilian astronaut (after Neil Armstrong and Elliot See), and the lunar module pilot on the Apollo 7 mission in 1968. This Beta cloth emblem was carried on Apollo 7, the longest, most ambitious and most successful first manned test flight of any new spacecraft until then.

The motif on the patch had to be approved by NASA, and it shows a circle which represents the earth. The ellipse is the shape of all earth orbital flight paths. This Beta cloth patch flew 4 5000 000 miles (7 200 000 km) with Cunningham on the first manned Apollo mission in October 1968 – a fascinating piece of space history!