Talk:United States Astronaut Badge

Coast Guard Astronauts
Can anyone provide info on the Astronaut Badge which is issued in the Coast Guard? I thought it was the same as the Navy, but have recently been advised that the USCG might have thier own version. Also I have heard rumors of a Coast Guard Flight Officer Astronaut Badge. Can anyone clear this up? Husnock 30 Sep 04

Image Question
I’m afraid I have to raise some questions about this new image. While it is a good image, it looks very much like someone took the original Astronaut Wings picture, which was created by the National Personnel Records Center, and “tacked on” the FAA image. I don’t know the rules about that, which is why I’m asking. NPRC certainly did not create or modify this new image, yet it has the US Government approved tag on it.

Second, the new image causes a spacing problem in that it spills over onto the margins of the article. In my view, the original Astronaut Wings should be restored and the FAA image made into a separate picture, later in the article. That will solve the spacing problem and prevent a copyright question about modifying (without permission) the image which was created by NPRC.

The floor is open to discussion. Thanks! Husnock – 6 Oct 2004

Missing Image
An anon IP user put an image of the astrnaut pin on the badge, but it is not visable except when running the "Preview" on the edit page. When saving the article, the image is listed as missing. Is this happening on other people's machines? -Husnock 16Feb05

Navy Astronaut (NFO) wings
Two things: First there is an ommission in that the Navy has two sets of wings for Naval Astronauts (one for pilots and one for Naval Flight Officers (NFO's) that become astronauts). Each is identical to the non-astronaut aviator and NFO wings, with the addition of the swoosh and star on the crest. More info on the history of navy wings can be found here:   Evolution of Naval Wings (this might make a good external link as well)

Secondly, the wings depicted as Coast Guard astronaut wings appear to be Navy NFO astronaut wings.


 * Two answers: The Naval Flight Officer Astronaut Badge is covered under the article for Naval Flight Officer Badge (linked in this article). The Coast Guard Astronaut Badge picture is the correct badge.  The pic has been verified from Coast Guard uniform regulations.  It does look like an NFO badge, but its not.  Its just how the Coast Guard does it.  The Coast Guard NFO Badge is actually obsolete (as far as I know) with no Coast Guard NFO Astronuat equivalent. -Husnock 17:34, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

"Aerodynamic flight"?
"Only ten pilots have qualified for the Astronaut Badge by flying an airplane into space: eight from the U.S. Air Force/NASA X-15 program, plus Brian Binnie and Mike Melvill from the Scaled Composites Tier One project. All other persons have been awarded the Astronaut Badge by traveling into space on rocket boosters, rather than in aerodynamic flight."

Eh? SpaceShipOne doesn’t reach space in aerodynamic flight. --Ahruman 12:48, Jun 4, 2005 (UTC)

Read the SpaceShipOne article Ahruman....the Tier One Project pilots WERE the SpaceShipOne pilots.

Foreigners
Lots of foreign astronauts on those Space Shuttles, most of them with military careers. Do they get astronaut badges they can wear? --Joffeloff 23:14, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Badges or wings?
Why are we calling them "badges"? This article is about U.S. practices, so shouldn't U.S. terminology be used? The Navy, USAF, and the FAA all call them "wings". Unless someone can come up with some official refs that call them badges, I propose moving this article to Astronaut Wings (which currently redirects here.). Akradecki 04:57, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, the Air Force definitely uses badge. I know the Army does too. Don't know about the Navy or FAA but it seems you're mistaken. Pardon this late reply. --IvoShandor (talk) 09:00, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Mach 25 and 100 days patch
Since this article includes info on both the silver and gold astro pin, would something about the shuttle Mach 25 patch and ISS 100 days patch be appropriate? --EarthPerson 00:13, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Comment
This comment was placed in the article by an anonymous user - I have removed it and am placing it here. -- Shruti14 t c s 19:58, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

"This picture is incorrect; the "Navy" pin is a Naval Aviator (Astronaut), awarded to pilots of space missions. The "Coast Guard" pin is a Naval Flight Officer (Astronaut), awarded to mission specialists and system operators. All Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard flight qualifications are the same, and are awarded the same pins."

Army badge
Are there any solid numbers available for the Army Astronaut Badge, I have heard this is the least awarded Army badge. --IvoShandor (talk) 09:01, 25 September 2008 (UTC)
 * It was stated in a documentary that the Army Astronaut Badge is the least most awarded Badge, followed by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Guard Identification Badge. It is also stated on the Tomb of the Unknowns Wikiaticle:

"A special Army decoration, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Guard Identification Badge is authorized for wear after passing a detailed test of 100 questions (from a pool of more than 300), a uniform test with two gigs (errors) or fewer (measured to the 1/64'), and a test on the guard changing sequence. After serving honorably for a period of nine months, and having passed the sequence of tests, a Tomb Guard is permanently awarded the Badge. Since 1959, many men have completed training and been awarded this Badge, as well as three women. A small number of Tomb Guard Identification Badges have also been retroactively awarded to soldiers who served as Guards before 1959. Those numbers make the Badge the second rarest award currently issued in the United States Army; only the Army Astronaut Badge is rarer." That being said, a citation is still needed to verify claim, as a fact tag was placed on similar wording on the page linked. --RightCowLeftCoast (talk) 10:42, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

Design Origin
Is there any information on where the pin/badge design came from? I've been curious about that for a while, and it would probably be pertinent enough to include in the article. 98.203.198.33 (talk) 20:17, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * I updated the army section to reflect its origins in the Army Aviation Badge. --IvoShandor (talk) 00:49, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Naval Astronaut Badge
The Badge listed on the article: Military Badges/Naval Aviators, the picture and segment is incomplete, missing the picure of Naval Aviator (pilot) wings, which according to Chapter 5 of the US Navy Uniform Regulations is a legitimate badge and should be included in the article about the NFO Astronaut Wings/Badge shown in the article — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.215.230.146 (talk) 12:17, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

USAF ICSO in T-1A to FL410
Thanks for removing this bizarre comment. Why would Instructor Combat Systems Officers (ICSO) riding in the modern equivalent of a T-39 (i.e., T-1A) at 41,000 feet above Mean Sea Level (FL450) rate astronaut wings anyway? CobraDragoon (talk) 23:44, 18 December 2013 (UTC)

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Global view
Since this page is for the U.S. military badge, propose moving it to Astronaut badge (United States) and creating a separate article for the global view. Garuda28 (talk) 17:02, 16 July 2018 (UTC)

Garuda28, you are encouraged to restore the global view version and continue any other needed changes from there. The edits were bold and made in good faith, yet in this case a fellow editor has had a kilobyte of conscientious effort treated as vandalism.

A plain English reading of the article title does not refer to the United States military. Note that Astronaut Wings redirects to this page, and as such it should contain general information on the subject matter in the broadest sense. The goal of the edits was to move to something more like the Aviator badge article, which is more NPOV.

At the same time, information on the US military badges should absolutely remain part of this article, and the US military badges being the featured photo shows the variation in astronaut badge awards and is relevant to both history and the present day. It would not benefit this article to remove the information on one of the major institutions that award astronaut badges. If a separate US awards page is created, the essential content for each specific award should still be copied or transcluded into this page. The best outcome is one page that actually goes into detail on all types of astronaut badges.

The worst possible outcome would be creating a list of completely separate articles based on which agency awards the badge, and then turning the Astronaut Wings or Astronaut badge pages into stub-dab lists. -- AlexWCovington  (talk) 16:48, 18 July 2018 (UTC)
 * No information is lost with the revert, but I believe that this article (and the intent of it) is to cover U.S. astronaut wings. Much like there is an article for U.S. pilot wings, there is also one for U.s. astronaut wings. I agree with you there should be one for global astronaut wings, however that should be a separate article. I will work on creating one (to include US civilian wings), however I do not agree that this article should be expanded more than U.S. military wings, but rather renamed. My proposed solution is to take the approach of Aviator badge and United States Aviator Badge Garuda28 (talk) 18:06, 18 July 2018 (UTC)

Update for Commercial Flight Astronauts?
Please make any needed updates based on Nasa's televised presetation of commercial flight astronauts on August 3 2018 including the fact that they called Christopher Ferguson a "Boeing Astronaut". It may not have changed the badges but commercial astronauts and an US but non-Nasa astronaut seem to be new content. 96.58.110.23 (talk) 16:17, 4 August 2018 (UTC)
 * they all have military badges earned as NASA crew. Can you explain how this affects this article? Garuda28 (talk) 17:13, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

List?
Considering its the least awarded qualification badge in the USAF and basically everyone who has it is notable and already has a Wikipedia article, shouldn't there be a list of everyone who has one, either in this article or in a separate one? Similar to the one Commercial astronaut already has. Jonas1015119 (talk) 23:07, 11 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Sounds good to me, just make it all services not just the USAF. Have at it. --McChizzle (talk) 23:31, 11 July 2020 (UTC)

FAA changes policy on who qualifies for commercial astronaut wings
https://spacenews.com/faa-revises-criteria-for-commercial-astronaut-wings/

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/22/us/faa-changes-astronaut-wings-scn/index.html

"Effective July 20, the FAA issued one more critical criterion: Commercial launch crew members must also demonstrate "activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety," an FAA spokesperson said, quoting the new order."

"Both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic issue their own astronaut wings to those who fly on their vehicles. Virgin Galactic awarded the four people in the cabin on the July 11 SpaceShipTwo flight large wings. Blue Origin gave those on its July 20 New Shepard flight a pin in the shape of the letter A with a feather, part of the company’s logo, forming the crossbar of the letter."

• Sbmeirow  •  Talk  • 07:53, 23 July 2021 (UTC)

Edit in the lead
Change

"It is the least-awarded qualification badge of the United States military"

to

"It is the rarest awarded qualification badge in the United States military"

putting in the talk cause i wanna know people's opinion--LostCitrationHunter (talk) 09:20, 9 December 2021 (UTC)