December 26, 2017

— The maiden launch of NASA's new heavy-lift rocket now has its own mission patch.



The space agency recently finalized the insignia representing Exploration Mission- 1 (EM-1), the first flight of its Space Launch System (SLS), presently targeted for late 2019. The EM-1 test flight will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft on a three-week mission to the moon and back.



"EM-1 lays the foundation for the first crewed flight of SLS and Orion, as well as a regular cadence of missions thereafter near the moon and beyond," stated NASA in a November release.



The new EM-1 patch features the launch of the SLS at the center of its triangular design. The rocket is depicted lifting off from Complex 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The major SLS components are shown in simplified form, including the orange insulation-covered core, two side-mounted five-segment solid rocket boosters and the shuttle-legacy RS-25 engines at the base of the core.







NASA's Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) mission patch. (NASA)