Beta Cloth Patches

Owens Corning contracted out the printing of NASA's beta cloth patches to the Screen Print Corp. of Coventry Rhode Island. There the insignia were screen printed onto rolls of beta cloth using Roma Chemical Questral pigments.

These were then cut into 9" squares (or 5½" in the case of the ASTP patches) with the printed designs at the centers. The hand-drawn 'cut lines' for the edges of these squares are often visible on one or more sides of beta cloth patches, as can be seen in this example of an Apollo 11 beta cloth patch.

The beta cloth patches were supplied to NASA in this form, and many were carried as souvenirs on missions without any further treatment.

The small number of patches actually intended to be worn on garments had a roughly 1" wide square of sizing (a stiffening glue or paste) applied around the insignia in order to prevent or reduce fraying of the cut edges, as shown in the example on the right.

These patches were then cut to around 5½" square and the edges of the cloth were then hemmed - folded back and sewn in place - usually into a roughly 4½" square for mission and NASA insignia patches, as shown in this example.

When most people think about the beta cloth patches used by the Apollo astronauts they are probably picturing those used on the outside of the astronauts' white space suits.

As can be seen in this photo of Neil Armstrong prior to the Apollo 11 flight, each Apollo astronaut wore a mission insignia, NASA insignia, US flag and name tag on the chest and shoulder of their space suits (officially Pressure Garment Assemblies or PGAs).

However, another complete set of beta cloth patches was worn on the inflight coverall garments (ICGs) which the astronauts wore in the spacecraft during most of the mission, as shown in the photo of Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham.

The mission patches, NASA insignia patches and US flag patches worn on the ICGs might be hemmed differently to those worn on the pressure suits but they were still the same designs.

However, the name tags used on the pressure suits and in-flight garments were of different designs and were also used in a number of other locations. This is described in more detail in a dedicated section below.

Those deep-pocketed collectors in the market to buy patches actually worn by the astronauts during the missions themselves should be careful to determine exactly which patches they're dealing with and where they were worn.

Another thing often overlooked by collectors is the fact that the majority of beta cloth patches prepared for use on clothing were likely those used on the coveralls of the NASA and contractor technicians who worked in the white room and in the suit-up area at the Cape.

As can be seen in this photo from Apollo 17, NASA technicians in the suit-up area and white room usually wore both ission and NASA insignia patches, and contractor technicians often wore a mission insignia beta cloth patch on their coveralls alongside the insignia of their own company.

However, the bulk of the production runs of mission insignia beta cloth patches were always destined to be souvenirs, either used by NASA for presentations, given directly to the astronauts for their personal use, or packaged and prepared to be carried as souvenirs on the flights themselves. These patches were carried flat, sealed in lots of 25 in plastic packages like the one shown on the right.

Although we don't know how many beta cloth patches were flown on each Apollo mission we do know that Jim Lovell carried 450 in his PPK on Apollo 13.

For Apollo 14, Ed Mitchell is reported to have said that the crew carried 20 packs of 25 beta cloth patches - i.e. 500 patches in total - on the mission, with Shepard and Roosa keeping 5 packs each, and Mitchell 10 packs. Astronauts on other flights may have carried similar numbers, although the weight restrictions on earlier missions may have limited the numbers.

Most beta cloth patches were never made available commercially, which greatly increases their desirability as collectibles. However, Owens Corning did use beta cloth patches in various forms in promotional materials designed to highlight the use of Fiberglas in the space program.

One of the most commonly-seen promotional items is a set of patches accompanied by an information card entitled "Apollo Emblems" which advertized Fiberglas insulation on the reverse.

As shown here, this set included a US flag beta cloth patch, a "Man On The Moon" commemorative design unique to this set, and an Apollo 11 mission insignia variant without the "APOLLO 11" text and with the background executed in blue ink instead of black.

These sets come up for sale quite frequently, although the patches are often sold individually.

Owens Corning also produced at least three commemorative lucites incorporating beta cloth mission patches which were most likely distributed as promotional items.

• A lucite entitled "Fiberglas was there" featuring an Apollo 8 beta cloth mission emblem.
• A lucite entitled "man's greatest adventure" featuring an Apollo 11 beta cloth mission emblem.

• A lucite enitled "First Motor Vehicle on the Moon" featuring an Apollo 15 beta cloth mission emblem and a small model of the Lunar Rover.

The Apollo 8 lucite must have been distributed in very small numbers as examples are rarely seen for sale. The Apollo 11 lucite appears more frequently, selling for around $120 to $250, and the Apollo 15 lucites are particularly popular with collectors, generally selling for around $200 to $300.

Finally, an Owens Corning framed commemorative presentation was produced in the mid 70s which incorporated trimmed beta cloth insignia from all the Apollo missions, as shown here. These presentations sell on eBay for anywhere from $150 to $500.

Overall, apart from the US flag patch none of the beta cloth patch designs used by NASA were ever sold directly to the general public in uncut form.

Despite this, from the number of unflown and uncut beta coth mission patches that appear on the secondary market today it is clear that the production runs of the Apollo beta cloth patches must have been very significant - certainly into the thousands of examples.

Apart from those patches flown on missions, the most valuable beta cloth patches are those that were prepared for use on garments. Very few examples exist in this form, with the few that I've seen to date coming from the collections of former Apollo suit technicians.

When it comes to regular beta cloth patches, examples on full 9" x 9" cloth squares (5½" squares for ASTP) are the most sought-after.

Issues that detract from beta cloth patch values include:

• Misalignment of printed elements - if one or more of the ink colors is signficantly misaligned this will lower the appeal of a patch. This is actually quite common in patches but perhaps this shouldn't be taken too far as it's worth noting that the beta cloth mission patches worn by Armstrong and Aldrin on their Apollo 11 space suits both show significant misalignment.
• Trimmed patches - patches that have been trimmed close to the printed image are generally worth less than those on full-sized cloth squares, with the exception of examples prepared for use on garments.

• Creases - creases are almost impossible to remove from beta cloth, so any creases on a beta cloth patch will definitely have an impact on its value.
• Scrapes - the ink on beta cloth patches can be scraped off fairly easily so damaged patches are not uncommon.
• Soiling - discoloration will obviously affect the appeal of patches, although some careful cleaning may be possible.

Values fetched by individual beta cloth mission patches on eBay over the last few years have varied quite wildly. In 2013-2014 a steady supply of patches from several eBay sellers saturated the market leading to a pretty consistent fall in prices to the point where many patches were being sold in the $29 to $49 range.

In mid-2017 a large stock of Roma Chemical Apollo 11 patch presentations was discovered and began to be offered on eBay. As of early 2018 at least 280 of these patches have been sold, with prices per patch subsequently dropping as low as $20 to $40. At the same time, the supply of beta cloth patches from other missions has stabilized, leading to somewhat higher prices for these.

Name tags of each type may well have been used on other crew-specific garments or the covers of other items of equipment that I just didn't find good photos of, so the list above should not be considered exhaustive.

Most name tags appear to have used black ink, but the type II name tag on the top cover of Armstrong's PLSS Oxygen Purge System (OPS) unit was printed in red ink whilst Aldrin's was printed in black. The name tags on the back of Armstrong's PLSS cover and on the PLSS RCU were most likely also printed in red, and indeed red ink seems to have been used for the commander's PLSS tags on all the Apollo lunar missions.

Although Aldrin's name tag looks to have used black ink his RCU name tag was printed using dark blue ink. Blue ink was also used on the name tags on Apollo 13 LMP Fred Haise's OPS and PLSS covers, as visible on the cover pieces he returned to earth as souvenirs, so in general it looks as if on the PLSS, OPS and PLSS covers red ink was used for the CDR name tags and dark blue (or sometimes black) ink was used for the LMP name tags.

Note that on some Apollo flown space suits now on display in museum collections you will see a type II name tag used on the chest rather than the type I, as is the case on with Bill Anders' Apollo 8 flown suit display pictured below.

Why the discrepancy? Simply because the actual flown beta cloth patches were removed post-flight (except for Apollo 11) to be given to the astronaut as souvenirs and were then replaced with new patches.

In the case of name tags, these replacement patches were not always of the 'correct' type.

It's also worth noting that for some pre-Apollo tests (e.g. 2TV-1) type II name tags were in fact used on space suits, and they also appear on many training suits (sometimes worn in portrait photos), which were obviously never intended for flight. Finally, on prototype suits and inflight garments used in early Apollo training sessions you will sometimes see completely different name tag styles with much larger lettering.

In terms of value, beta cloth name tags of all kinds are pretty scarce relative to mission insignia patches, so they tend to sell for fairly significant sums. Most name tags are just on cut cloth, so suit-prepared (hemmed) examples will fetch a premium, as will patches bearing the names of the most famous astronauts.

The NASA vector insignia (or "meatball") beta cloth patch is shown here. The printed image measures 3" (76mm) across the center section.

The patch was generally worn on the crew's space suits hemmed into a square or rectangle, although for Apollo 9 Schweickart's NASA insignia was sewn into a pentagonal shape to fit the available space on his EVA suit.

Note that on Apollo 15, 16 and 17 the NASA patch was worn on the right shoulder rather than the chest.

Good cleanly-printed examples of the NASA insignia beta cloth patch without creases and on a full 9" x 9" cloth sell for around $50 to $155.

The 2TV-1 beta cloth mission patch is shown here. The printed image measures 3" (76mm) high.

The patches were apparently hemmed around the edges of the printed design itself on the space suits of the 2TV-1 crew.

Good cleanly-printed examples of the 2TV-1 beta cloth mission patch without creases and on a full 9" x 9" cloth sell for anywhere between $40 and $199.

Addendum : In 2017 a number of examples of a smaller 2TV-1 beta cloth patch (with the printed image measuring approximately 2" high) were sold on eBay. It's not clear how these were intended to be used.

The Apollo 7 beta cloth mission patch is shown above, with the printed image measuring 3" (76mm) high.

The beta cloth mission insignia and name tag from Wally Schirra's Apollo 7 space suit were originally sold in 1994, resold in 1996, and then sold again in 2011 for $6632.^[1]

Although on later missions the beta cloth patches were usually attached as hemmed squares, on the Apollo 7 crew's space suits the patches were apparently hemmed around the edges of the printed design itself as shown above.

Good cleanly-printed examples of the Apollo 7 beta cloth mission patch without creases and on a full 9" x 9" cloth sell for anywhere between $50 and $130, with most examples falling in the $50 to $75 range.

The Apollo 8 beta cloth mission patch is shown above, with the printed image measuring 4¾" (122mm) across.

On the Apollo 8 crew's space suits the patches were hemmed around the edges of the design itself, whilst leaving a narrow white border, as shown above.

Good cleanly-printed examples of the Apollo 8 beta cloth mission patch without creases and on a full 9" x 9" cloth sell for anywhere between $80 and $237, with a single example selling at $405.

The Apollo 9 beta cloth mission patch is shown above, with the printed image measuring 3" (78mm) across.

The patch was worn on McDivitt and Scott's space suits hemmed into a rectangle roughly 4"x3½" across, but on Schweickart's EVA suit, which had a different layout on the chest, the mission patch was hemmed into a hexagonal shape.

As can be seen in image above, Schweickart's NASA 'meatball' logo patch was hemmed into a pentagon to fit the logo into the available space.

Good cleanly-printed examples of the Apollo 9 beta cloth mission patch without creases and on a full 9" x 9" cloth sell for anywhere between $25 and $97, with one example fetching $128.

The Apollo 10 beta cloth mission patch is shown above, with the printed image measuring 3" (75mm) across.

The patch was worn on the crew's space suits hemmed into a square roughly 3¾" across as shown above.

Good cleanly-printed examples of the Apollo 10 beta cloth mission patch without creases and on a full 9" x 9" cloth sell for anywhere between $50 and $150, with one example fetching $223.

The Apollo 11 beta cloth mission patch is shown above, with the printed image measuring 3½" (86mm) across.

Good cleanly-printed examples of the Apollo 11 beta cloth mission patch without creases and on a full 9" x 9" cloth sell for anywhere between $20 and $100.

They originally sold for more than most other beta cloth mission patches but in 2017 a large stock (over 250) of un-distributed Apollo 11 beta cloth Roma Chemical presentations was discovered and the mass resale of these patches has pushed prices down significantly.

It is noteworthy that there are several distinct variants of the Apollo 11 beta cloth mission patch. On the oldest variant (current at the time of the mission itself) the black outlines of the letters and Earth appear to have been part of the same screen-print stencil as the black concentric circles of the outer border.

When this stencil is misaligned with that used for the dark fill of the background - something that is very common - it leaves a sort of 3D effect on the lettering and adds a rim of sorts one one side of the Earth. This can be seen on the example shown at the start of this section, and indeed on the patches used on the crew's PGA suits.

A later variant of the patch eliminbated this problem, apparently by removing the black outlines of the lettering and Earth from the design. There are also some other subtle changes to the design, noticeably in the shape and detail of the landmasses on the Earth and in the dark crater details on the lunar surface, which are somewhat reduced and simplified.

It's not clear when the design was changed, but this variant is the one included in the complete Apollo project presentation piece created by Owens Corning in the mid 1970s and is also the version incorporated in the Owens Corning Apollo 11 lucites.

An oversize version of the Apollo 11 beta cloth patch, shown above, also exists where the printed design measures approximately 10" across.

It is not clear what this was intended for, although it was perhaps to be worn on the backs of technicians' overalls. In any case these patches are scarce, with examples selling for between $99 and $555.^[2]

A fourth version of the Apollo 11 beta cloth mission patch was produced by Owens Corning for use in a promotional set of patches which also included a beta cloth U.S. flag, and a Man on the Moon commemorative design.

As shown above, this version of the patch lacks the "APOLLO 11" text at the top and has a distinctive blue background.

This promotional version of the Apollo 11 patch is not as popular with collectors as the standard versions, generally selling for around $25 to $60.

The Apollo 12 beta cloth mission patch is shown above, with the printed image measuring 3" (77mm) across.

The patch was worn on the crew's space suits hemmed into a square roughly 3½" (89mm) across as shown above.

Good cleanly-printed examples of the Apollo 12 beta cloth mission patch without creases and on a full 9" x 9" cloth sell for anywhere between $50 and $201.

The Apollo 13 beta cloth mission patch is shown above, with the printed image measuring 3½" (89mm) across.

The patch was worn on the crew's space suits hemmed into a square roughly 4" across as shown above.

Good cleanly-printed examples of the Apollo 13 beta cloth mission patch without creases and on a full 9" x 9" cloth sell for anywhere between $50 and $417.

The Apollo 14 beta cloth mission patch is shown above, with the printed image measuring 4"x3½" (103mm x 89mm).

The patch was worn on the crew's space suits hemmed into a rough octagon approximately 4½" across as shown above.

Good cleanly-printed examples of the Apollo 14 beta cloth mission patch without creases and on a full 9" x 9" cloth sell for anywhere between $50 and $160.

The Apollo 15 beta cloth mission patch is shown above, with the printed image measuring 3½" (88mm) across.

The patch was worn on the crew's space suits hemmed into asquare roughly 4½" (112mm) across as shown above.

Good cleanly-printed examples of the Apollo 15 beta cloth mission patch without creases and on a full 9" x 9" cloth sell for anywhere between $50 and $374.

The Apollo 16 beta cloth mission patch is shown above, with the printed image measuring 3½" (89mm) across.

The patch was worn on the crew's space suits hemmed into asquare roughly 4½" (112mm) across as shown above.

Good cleanly-printed examples of the Apollo 16 beta cloth mission patch without creases and on a full 9" x 9" cloth sell for anywhere between $40 and $144.

The Apollo 17 beta cloth mission patch is shown above, with the printed image measuring 3½" (88mm) across.

The patch was worn on the crew's space suits hemmed into asquare roughly 4½" (112mm) across as shown above.

Good cleanly-printed examples of the Apollo 17 beta cloth mission patch without creases and on a full 9" x 9" cloth sell for anywhere between $40 and $155.

The Skylab Medical Experiments Altitude Test (SMEAT) beta cloth mission patch is shown above, with the printed image measuring 3" (76mm) high.

The patches were worn hemmed into squares on the orange coveralls of the crew, as shown above.

Good cleanly-printed examples of the SMEAT beta cloth mission patch without creases and on a full 9" x 9" cloth sell for anywhere between $79 and $399.

The Skylab 2 beta cloth mission patch is shown above, with the printed image measuring 3½" (90mm) across.

The patch was worn on the crew's space suits hemmed into a square roughly 4½" (112mm) across, as shown above.

Good cleanly-printed examples of the Skylab 2 beta cloth mission patch without creases and on a full 9" x 9" cloth sell for around $35 to $70, with one recent high sale at $227.

The Skylab 3 beta cloth mission patch is shown above, with the printed image measuring 3½" (90mm) across.

The patch was worn on the crew's space suits hemmed into a square roughly 4½" (114mm) across, as shown above.

Good cleanly-printed examples of the Skylab 3 beta cloth mission patch without creases and on a full 9" x 9" cloth sell for around $35 to $120, with one recent high sale at $230.

The Skylab 4 beta cloth mission patch is shown above, with the printed image measuring 3½" (86mm) across.

The patch was worn on the crew's space suits hemmed into a square roughly 4½" (114mm) across, as shown above.

Good cleanly-printed examples of the Skylab 4 beta cloth mission patch without creases and on a full 9" x 9" cloth sell for around $40 to $50, but with some recent high sales at $115 to $227.

The ASTP beta cloth mission patch is shown above, with the printed image measuring 3½" (90mm) across.

The patch was worn on the crew's space suits hemmed into a square roughly 4½" (114mm) across, as shown above.

Good cleanly-printed examples of the ASTP beta cloth mission patch without creases and on a full 5½" square cloth sell for around $40 to $130.

The NASA 'worm' logo beta cloth patch, as used by the Apollo-Soyuz crew in 1975, is shown above. The printed text measures 6" (76mm) across, and the cloth 7" x 5".

Most photos of the ASTP crew in training show the NASA vector insignia on their suits, as the NASA 'worm' logo was only introduced shortly before the flight itself. These patches were produced in beta cloth form only for this mission, with the later versions used for the Shuttle project EVA suits being produced in Orthofabric instead.

As can be seen above, the main patch was worn high on the right shoulder of the A7L suits.

A second version of the patch was produced for use on the inflight coveralls with lettering measuring 3⅓" across on a 5" square of cloth.

The only examples of these patches to have surfaced in recent years came from the Deke Slayton estate. Several examples of each version of the patch were sold in mixed lots.