OREANDA-NEWS. June 24, 2009. Anatoly Perminov, Head of the Federal Space Agency, approved patch design of the Soyuz TMA-16 crew to fly to the International Space Station on Sept. 30, 2009.

Soyuz TMA-16 prime crew is commanded by Roscosmos cosmonaut Maxim Suraev. NASA astronaut Jeff Williams flies as Soyuz flight engineer. The third seat is taken by Guy Laliberte, Canadian space flight participant.

Kid`s artwork was traditionally selected as the core of the patch. Roscosmos offers three winners of the contest to visit Baikonur during launch in September.

The Soyuz TMA-16 patch is based on artwork provided by 14-year old Nastya Mestyashova from the Orenburg region in Russia. Nastya is an overachieving student. She is keen on dancing and drawing. She plays guitar.
   
The second place goes to 13-year-old Youe Duing from Beijing`s intermediate school Lukhae.

The third winner is Oleg Golovin, 10 years, Electrostal, Moscow region.
A few words about the design.

Central element of the emblem is a cosmonaut figure and three large stars, one for each launching crewmember: American astronaut Jeff Williams (dark blue star), Space Adventures participant Guy Laliberte (light blue star) and their Russian spacecraft commander Maxim Surayev (red star). The flags of the cosmonauts` home countries - Russia, the United States and Canada - are shown at the top of the shield.

In the upper left corner, simple shapes symbolize the building blocks of the universe and life on Earh. The `cradle of mankind`, from which the mission originates, is depicted by a growing plant, gradually transforming into a fiery rocket trail and a spacecraft, bound for the International Space Station. The ISS is drawn like a gold star, with 9 rays for each crewmember present when the Soyuz TMA-16 has arrived.

The plant and rocket trail together form a `16`, the Soyuz TMA mission number. The Earth in the background has the typical grid pattern seen in earlier Soviet and Russian space logo`s, heralding all heroes of the Vostok, Voshkod and Soyuz flights of the past. In the globe, the Roscosmos symbol is embedded for both the organization responsible for the flight and commander Surayev. The surnames of Williams and Laliberte are companied by the NASA and One Drop Foundation logo`s respectively. In the same area, a small red star and small blue star are included for the future, safe return of Surayev and Williams, who together will land in the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft in March 2010.
It is worth mentioning that Maxim Suraev also took part in designing the patch.