From the collection of Tim Gagnon-KSCartist aka "The Patch Guy."

NASA-SPACE Richard Garriott Personal Patch from his 2008 Mission to the ISS.

Backstory:

On October 12, 2008, Garriott flew aboard the Soyuz TMA-13 mission to the ISS as a private astronaut, returning 12 days later aboard Soyuz TMA-12. He became the second space traveler, and first from the United States, to have a parent who was also a space traveler.

Garriott flew on TMA-13 as a guest of the Russian government through a spaceflight participant program run by the private company Space Adventures. His role aboard the Soyuz is referred to as a "spaceflight participant" in English-language Russian Space Agency documents, as well as NASA documents and press briefings.

Description of the patch

This is considered a rare personal mission patch. Garriott designed this custom insignia alongside his artist mother, Helen-Mary Garriott, deeply weaving their family's space legacy into its imagery:

The Vitruvian Man: The prominent central figure is a direct tribute to his father, Owen Garriott, who was a NASA astronaut and Science Pilot on the 1973 Skylab II mission. That patch famously used Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man to symbolize human adaptation studies in space.

"Generation II": This text highlights the historic milestone that Richard Garriott was the first American second-generation space traveler to follow his parent into orbit. (Concurrently, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, who was on the ISS during the same timeframe, was the world's first second-generation space traveler).

National Flags: The flags along the bottom border represent the citizenships and home nations of the crew members he flew with to and from the ISS.

The Triscalion: Visible embedded within the design (between "Generation II" and his name) is a stylized three-pronged symbol. This is a deliberate nod to the fictional glyph language featured in Garriott's MMORPG video game, "Tabula Rasa."

NOTE: I met Richard Garriott twice. The first time when I spoke at the NSS ISDC in Orlando, FL in 2009. Then ten years later, we met again at the KSCVC for a Yuri's Night event in 2019. I presented him with my Skylab Commemorative in honor of his father and he gave me this patch I am offering today.