Frank Borman
James Lovell
William Bradley
“Gemini 7 was to be a two-week mission with mostly medical experiments being conducted. Therefore, we wanted an insignia that would signify medicine and endurance, much like a long-distance runner ... The artwork on the Gemini 7 patch was done by NASA artists.”
—Jim Lovell, from All We Did Was Fly to the Moon
The Gemini 7 patch shows an Olympic torch, symbolic of the marathon-like 14-day mission. Souvenir patches include the astronaut names, but they were not present on the original design nor the patches that the astronauts wore. However, the Gemini 7 patch hung on the wall of the MOCR (Mission Operations Control Room, aka Mission Control) does include the crew names.
It is notable that on this flight, the very first to be launched after Gemini 5, the patch was worn not on the right breast — as stipulated by Administrator Webb’s memo — but on the right arm. This long-duration mission utilized a special “lightweight” suit, designated G5C, and photos show that the arrangement of ports on the breast of this suit necessitated the re-location of the NASA insignia from its normal location on the left breast, to the right breast. Thus the Gemini 7 mission patch ended up on the arm of the suit rather than the breast. For Gemini 6, 8 and 9, the patch was placed on the right breast as directed by Webb. Curiously, the patch returned to the right shoulder for the last 3 Gemini missions.