Apollo 9

The crew of Apollo 9

James McDivitt, Dave Scott, and Rusty Schweickart

Apollo VIII

This is an original artist concept painting for the Apollo 8 mission emblem. It is beautifully painted by Al Stevens who designed many of the Apollo crew patches. Notice the similarities in design to what was to become the Apollo 9 mission emblem. It even has the names of the Apollo 9 crew on it.
Originally, Apollo 8 was intended to follow Apollo 7 with an Earth orbit testing of the lunar module. There was a delay in completing the LM which postponed that objective. Meanwhile it was feared that the Soviet Union might attempt a manned lunar orbit mission before America could. So, the original Apollo 8 mission was redesignated as Apollo 9 and a new mission with the crew of Borman, Lovell, and Anders became Apollo 8. They became mankind's first visitors to the Moon... and the only ones to go there without a lunar module!
The painting has been signed by Dave Scott and Rusty Schweickart... notice that Rusty has added a "c" that was left out of his name. :)

Rusty Schweickart and Dave Scott

Rusty Schweickart and Dave Scott are here looking at the Apollo VIII crew patch (seen below) and reflecting back to that very short period in their life when they were members of the crew of Apollo VIII... which was only for a few weeks, until their mission designation was changed to Apollo 9.

Original Apollo 9 artwork by artist Al Stevens

Al Stevens has nearly completed the design of the Apollo 9 crew emblem in this painting. Only minor changes are needed to perfect this image at this point. Can you see the changes needed?

In Earth orbit

Apollo 9, by Ed Hengeveld. Can you imagine being one of these guys?