STS-89 Endeavour, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 105, crew insignia

STS089-S-001 (October 1997) --- The link between the United States and Russia is symbolically represented by the space shuttle Endeavour and Russia?s Mir Space Station orbiting above the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska. The success of the joint United States-Russian missions is depicted by the space shuttle and Mir colored by the rising sun in the background. A shadowed representation of the International Space Station (ISS) rising with the sun represents the future program for which the Shuttle-Mir missions are prototypes. The inside rim of the insignia describes the outline of the number eight representing STS-89 as the eighth Shuttle/Mir docking mission. The nine stars represent the nine joint missions to be flown of the program and ? when combined with the number eight in the rim -- reflect the mission number. The nine stars also symbolize the children of the crew members who will be the future beneficiaries of the joint development work of the space programs of the two countries. Along the rim are the crew members? names with David A. Wolf?s name on the left and Andrew S. W. Thomas? name on the right, the returning and upgoing cosmonaut guest researcher crew members. In between and at the bottom is the name of Salizan S. Sharipov, mission specialist representing Russian Space Agency (RSA), in Cyrillic alphabet. The other crew members are Terrence W. Wilcutt, commander; Joe F. Edwards Jr., pilot; and mission specialists Michael P. Anderson, Bonnie J. Dunbar, and James F. Reilly. The red, white and blue of the rim reflect the colors of the American and Russian flags which are also represented in the rim on either side of the joined spacecraft. The NASA insignia design for space shuttle flights is reserved for use by the astronauts and for other official use as the NASA Administrator may authorize. Public availability has been approved only in the forms of illustrations by the various news media. When and if there is any change in this policy, which is not anticipated, the change will be publicly announced. Photo credit: NASA