Some of the additional elements of the patch date back nearly a year before launch. The '16' shape, ending in the flight path of a spaceship, was first drawn by Erik in October 2008, along with a first, quick computerized sketch. At that time, it was not yet known that the (just initiated) children's competition for TMA-14 would continue for future flights.



Another central feature in the patch - the gridded globe - made its first appearance in a proposal by Jorge Cartes, also in October 2008, for Soyuz TMA-15. Jorge: ,,It's the same globe Soviet and Russian cosmonauts had been using by years on their patches, and I tried to make a tribute to all of them. It seems to be the most popular Earth image for the cosmonauts, in contrast with the very common sea-clouds image that American astronauts like.''

The globe and 16 were combined thanks to Jacques van Oene, who picked up the work for TMA-16 in March 2009. ,,Luc had done TMA-14, Erik was still very busy with TMA-15, so I felt it was my job to do some pioneering work on the TMA-16 project", Jacques explains. Although Jorge's and Jacques' work did not directly lead to a patch, exchanging ideas and skills in this stage turned out to be very useful.


Left: Jorge's TMA-15 proposal. Center: An early sketch of the TMA-16 patch drawn on March 18, 2009, by Jorge at the request of Jacques, with the Roscosmos logo at one of the poles. Right: The design Jacques and Jorge proposed to Roscosmos on March 29, 2009. Aimbetov's name is written incorrectly.

In April, it became clear that Aimbetov would not fly - interrupting Jacques' and Jorge's work. Then, on May 7, 2009, Roscosmos announced that the TMA-16 artwork would again be chosen from their growing batch of children's submissions. Anastasia's drawing immediately stood out. With Jacques and Jorge unavailable at the time, Roscosmos asked Erik to help with the final artwork.


Some stages in the development of the patch.

Because of the international character of the flight, the Russian colors in the background of Nastya's artwork had to go. Instead, a slightly altered version of Jorge's globe was used. The Roscosmos logo was placed in Jacques' prefered position.

The 16 was made up of the shapes that were at the bottom of Nastya's drawing. Because it was unclear if they were rockets or plants, it was decided to use them both ways, to emphasize the connection between spaceflight and Earth. As an additional tribute to Jacques' and Jorge's early work, the 16 was made as colorful as in their proposal.

At the request of commander Surayev, the shape of the large stars was changed and the cosmonaut was given a pair of visible hands. This was done mainly to make it look less like the hands were exploding. Most difficult part turned out to be the border color - at one point, it was green, but in the end, Surayev chose blue and silvery gray.

Official announcement of Guy Laliberte as the third crewmember came on June 4, 2009. The artwork for the patch was formerly approved by Roscosmos head Anatoli Perminov on June 10, 2009. It was made public on June 23, 2009. First images of the embroidered patch were released on July 30, 2009.
All designs copyright Roscosmos/Spacepatches.nl.

The TMA-16 back up crew: Barbara Barrett, Alexander Skvortsov and Shannon Walker.

For the back up patch, something similar to the TMA-15 back up logo was requested by Roscosmos: a dark background, a bright border but no names and flags, to cover all possible crew make ups. At the suggestion of Roscosmos press chief Alexander Vorobiov the blue and silver border colors of the primary patch were inverted and only the logo's of Roscosmos, NASA and Space Adventures were used. In this design, the four Americans are represented by blue colors, the three Russians by red, the single Canadian by green and the Belgian by gold. To symbolize the entire TMA-16 team (prime and back up crews) six birds from Nastya's original design were added. The patch, like the TMA-15 back up, was embroidered onto a felt background.