Cast Your Vote!
Each year we challenge our campers to design a mission patch that will become the official emblem for Space Adventure Camp. This year is extra special as the Virginia Space Flight Academy (VASFA) celebrates its 25th year of Space Adventure Camp! Campers were asked to create a mission patch design around the theme, "25 YEARS OF SPACE CAMP," which signifies a milestone anniversary, citing how long Space Adventure Camp has been operating at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, its surrounding aerospace cluster, and the local community.
Before launching the contest, campers were enrolled in a design workshop with accomplished mission patch artist Tim Gagnon, who designed VASFA's official 25th-anniversary logo. Tim taught campers the elements of mission patch design, so this year's designs are even more incredible!
You can view each design below, including the artist's notes. After viewing the designs, you can vote daily for your favorite design at the bottom of this page. You, the voting public, will decide which patch design is the 25th anniversary year winner!
The camper with the winning patch will work with our staff to refine their design to create the 25th Anniversary Camp Mission Patch that will become the emblem for this summer's camp and be featured on the camper t-shirts and all camp-related items and media.
Patch A
Behind the Design: View of Orion and Big Dipper from a field overlooking Space Camp with a cabin, fire, and telescope in the view. Moon above and the two larger, separate circles in the night sky are planets.
Patch B
Behind the Design: The overall theme of my patch is to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Space Adventure Camp through the Virginia Space Flight Academy (VASFA) and what it stands for. I believe VASFA is here to offer kids like me a chance to enhance our knowledge of STEM by providing us with innovative, hands-on experiences. As the next generation, we will use our understanding to change the future. The rocket blasting off on my patch represents the power we have by learning, growing, and working together. All of this is represented through the words, "Lifting Off the Future for 25 Years". The Moon and Earth in the background on my patch represents the future explorations that I and so many other kids hope to someday be a part of. The VASFA Space Camp will definitely help us get there! I hope my mission patch inspires others to reach their dreams by shooting for the stars.
Patch C
Behind the Design: Far into the stars, a rocket whooshes up from Wallops Island. 6 stars - one for each of the Mercury Missions that led America to space - soar high above. The rocket leaves the boundary - a boundary some have crossed to find out more.
Patch D
Behind the Design: The International Space Station orbits the earth.
Patch E
Behind the Design: A purple patch with a rocket spelling out VASFA with a vapor trail and twenty five stars to represent the 25th anniversary of VASFA. The planet Saturn because Saturn V was a rocket for the Apollo mission and we are trying to go back to the moon.
Patch F
Behind the Design: My patch design has an astronaut on the moon with a NASA rocket on the moon too. There is also an American flag in the background. There is another rocket flying in space and has the theme for this year in orange.
Patch G
Behind the Design: It shows the main subject of Virginia Space Flight Academy's teaching (a rocket for rocket science), a "25" in the flames for obvious reasons, and the motto, "Igniting Dreams, Launching Futures!".
Patch H
Behind the Design: When I started my patch, I knew I wanted to make it with the number 25 (to celebrate the twenty-fifth year of the camp) filled in with designs. I then connected them to make it look like Star Wars writing. I then made the smaller rocket on the right launching from Wallops Island on Earth into space where twenty-five stars go down the five. I added VASFA on the bottom to fill the space, then finished by putting a second rocket in the middle.
Patch I
Behind the Design: There are five stars, one for every letter in VASFA. I originally was going to do 25, for the 25th anniversary, but that would not be easy to fit in. There is a rocket that is heading to Mars, and this was added because places like this are inspiring people around my age to think that they can be the person that is the next Armstrong, and many people belive it can be done within our lifetime. It also shows how it is inspiring people to think farther than the already known, along with many other similar things. The text also represents that VASFA is doing a lot of these things, all while educating and giving useful life skills. The last thing is the outline, which is silver for the 25th anniversary.
Patch J
Behind the Design: The 24 white stars and one red star at Wallops Island represent the 25 years of the camp. The ribbon tail of the "y" recalls the two red tails of the rocket in the NASA logo. The rocket, like our imaginations, is being launched from Wallops Island (which is seen in the background as part of the Delmarva peninsula) for this year's space camp class! Both NASA and VASFA symbols appear on the rocket. The rocket colors also call to mind past NASA rockets. For the actual patch, the green would all be one color but it was difficult to make an image from different map features that I could recolor as one color without losing too many edges. The two blues could both match as well if need be. All the reds would be the same. The two grays are the same.
Patch K
Behind the Design:
United states with a star on VA since that is where VASFA is located.
25 years and going is to show how long VASFA has thrived and is still going.
Line across earth is to show the spinning of the earth and the other details orbiting around it
United states and Virginia flag
I put the ISS since it shares a common anniversary with VASFA.
.I also put a family of stars and one more shooting star to represent a rising star joining others like it.
Patch L
Behind the Design: My design was based off a rocket, space and the Chesapeake Bay. The land and water on the bottom represents the Chesapeake Bay. The words, "Launch for 25" represent the fact that it is VASFA’s 25th birthday. Hope you enjoy my design. :)
Patch M
Behind the Design: 25 years of VASFA! Our past and future point to the moon! The Apollo missions took us there and the Artemis missions will take us back!
Patch N
Behind the Design: The James Webb space telescope, discover, and words.
Patch O
Behind the Design: The rocket ship lifting off from the Virginia launch pad and going through the planets symbolize VSFA's motto to explore Earth, our solar system, and beyond. Six of the eight planets in our solar system are featured - Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Finally, the eight stars in the sky represent infinity (∞) and the infinite depth of space.
Patch P
Behind the Design: This patch represents the idea of space camp. The sun and moon in the background show that the camp is over night. The people standing are all the kids at space camp holding hands to show teamwork and, if you look close enough, you will see 25 stars to represent the 25 years of VASFA and fun!
Patch Q
Behind the Design: This patch represents 25 years of VASFA space camp. I chose my patch to say that it is twenty five years and counting because I believe that VASFA will go on for many years to come. I have put the year, and the place where camp is located, on the patch. I chose to make an earth and the ISS orbiting it. The ISS started construction when VASFA was started exactly 25 years ago. The orbit represents the never ending education you can learn from the VASFA camp. This is the inspiration for my 2023 camp mission patch design contest.
Patch R
Behind the Design: In this design, I used an atomic symbol because it represents all matter. I used the planets as the electrons and the sun as the center. I put the earth with a space shuttle because I wanted to include something about how space flight has advanced in the last 25 years. I hope you like it!
Patch S
Behind the Design: If you look at the patch, you can see the VASFA logo in the middle with the 25 years under it. In the bottom left corner, you can see and astronaut helmet with the Earth and the International Space Station. The ISS is in the helmet because the ISS has been in Earth's orbit the same amount of time that the camp has been open. In the bottom right corner, you can see WFF for Wallops Flight Facility where the camp is located. There are 7 stars on the patch to pay tribute to the beginning of the US human space program.
Patch T
Behind the Design: I challenged the saying "Sky's the limit" as inspiration for the saying at the top. I thought it would fit with the theme of the space design. The space suit is silver to celebrate the 25th (silver) anniversary.
Patch U
Behind the Design: It's a creator's lab with rockets flying around.