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STS-73 / Columbia Patch

STS-73 / Columbia Patch

Item PASTS073 Price $4.95

Eighteenth Columbia flight. The United States Microgravity Laboratory-2 (USML-2) was the prime payload on this flight. Experiments on gravity in combusion flame spreading, semiconductor crystals and theoretical models of fluid physics were tested. The Orbital Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS), High-Packed Digital Television Demonstration and Three Dimensional Microgravity Accelerometer (3DMA) were on this flight. Landed November 5, 1995 at Kennedy Space Center, FL. Mission Duration: 381 hours 53 minutes 17 seconds.

Patch description: The crew patch of STS-73, the second flight of the United States Microgravity Laboratory (USML-2), depicts the Space Shuttle Columbia in the vastness of space. In the foreground are the classic regular polyhedrons that were investigated by Plato and later Euclid. The Pythagoreans were also fascinated by the symmetrical three-dimensional objects whose sides are the same regular polygon. The tetrahedron, the cube, the octahedron, and the icosahedron were each associated with the "Natural Elements" of that time: fire (on this mission represented as combustion science); Earth (crystallography), air and water (fluid physics). An additional icon shown as the infinity symbol was added to further convey the discipline of fluid mechanics. The shape of the emblem represents a fifth polyhedron, a dodecahedron, which the Pythagoreans thought corresponded to a fifth element that represented the cosmos.

4" diameter embroidered patch.

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