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| Crew & Mission |
Back row: Front row:
Expedition 46 is scheduled to be the 46th expedition to the International Space Station. Sergey Volkov, Mikhail Korniyenko and Scott Kelly are to transfer from Expedition 45, the latter two as part of their year-long stay aboard the ISS. Expedition 46 is scheduled to begin upon the departure of Soyuz TMA-17M in November 2015 and conclude upon the departure of Soyuz TMA-18M in March 2016. The crew of Soyuz TMA-19M are then to transfer to Expedition 47.
| Design |
The original, rejected patch and artwork.
The Expedition-46 patch was designed with input from commander Scott Kelly. The patch was released first in embroidered form by AB Emblem on August 10, 2014. It did not receive a very warm welcome from the space community, as it was considered 'unbalanced' and reminded some people of a swastika - a feeling that was amplified by the black and gray colors.
A first batch of patches to be sent to the ISS by an unmanned Progress freighter was received at Baikonur in early October 2014. Energya workers preparing the patches for flight, noticed that the '46' symbol on the patch looked like the logo of the Social-National Assembly of Ukraine and their Azov Battalion, a paramilitary detachment fighting the pro-Russian rebels. They consulted with the head of Energya, Sergei Romanov, who in turn alerted Roscosmos head of manned spaceflight Alex Krasnov. Krasnov contacted NASA, who decided a redesign was needed. The new artwork was ready on October 21, 2014. Two days later, AB Emblem ceased production of the first version.
In addition to a different '46', the second embroidered version was given an overlock border.
| Spot the patch |
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| Links |
Expedition 46 discussion at CollectSpace
Expedition 46 on wikipedia
Larger images on our Flickr site