The design of the Expedition 9 mission patch includes a tribute to astronauts and cosmonauts who gave their lives in space exploration. The outspread wings of the eagle have 16 stars and 1 star of David. They represent the Apollo 1 crew Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. Space Shuttle Challenger STS-51L crew Francis "Dick" Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnick and Christa McAuliffe. Space Shuttle Columbia STS-107 crew Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Michael P. Anderson, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut. Around the eagles neck are 4 small red stars and one larger red star. The large star is for Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space during Vostok 1, who was killed during training for Soyuz 3. The other 4 are for Soyuz 1 cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, Soyuz 11 crew Georgi Dobrovolski, Viktor Patsayev and Vladislav Volkov.
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