The Artwork

The patch composition contains the following themes; Red lines after Shuttle and Jet aircraft together form a Hebrew letter "aleph" - the first letter of Ilan's name. The F-16 type combat craft symbolised Ramon's past as an Air Force pilot and one of the first F-16 pilots in Israel. Lifting off Space Shuttle symbolised Ramon's vocation as astronaut. Four stars against space background represent the four children of Mr. Ramon and a bright crescent moon, certainly, his wife. Three Earth horizons colours - blue, white and red, analogous to American flag colours, remind that Ilan Ramon has passed his pre-space flight training in the USA. The blue Earth globe symbolised our home, astronauts must safely return after their space flight. White-blue colours and David stars on the patch border represent the national flag of Israel. On the border there is also an inscripton "Ilan Ramon - Israeli Astronaut" in two languages - Hebrew and English. In April 2001 Ilan Ramon received a set of these patches in Houston.

The patch was designed by Leon Rosenblum and Alexander Shlyadinsky. (Stewart Aviation made the patch)