Famed Star Trek artist Mike Okuda, responsible for so much of the look and feel of the Next Generation era, has also made quite a name for himself designing patches and insignias for various NASA missions.  His latest work includes patches for the Constellation, Ares I-X, and Orion Missions.

As reported by Cleveland.com, Mike explains "I love the style of military unit or squadron emblems, that wonderful sense of bravado, since that's such a big part of NASA's culture."  Check out the article exerpt below.

Hawaii native Michael Okuda, who started working his way up through the Star Trek ranks with set work on the 1986 movie "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," has actually been at work for many years designing mission patches and other program patches for NASA, efforts for which he was recognized with the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal last July. The space shuttle Atlantis astronauts toiling to repair the Hubble Space Telescope in last May's STS-125 mission did so with Okuda-designed patches on their spacesuits.

That taste of military bravado is certainly evident in Okuda's Star Trek work, and there's a certain sense of it in his Constellation program patch designs as well. But the difference in tone in the Constellation designs is palpable, and reflects a purpose beyond simply conveying team pride: to instill a certain sense of wonder, a thrill of space exploration to a public being asked to buy into a new space program. (source Cleveland.com)

Read the full article here.

Image credit Trekcore.com