Going Above and Beyond: NASA Orion Mission Patch, designed by LSU Space Day Students, sent into Orbit

Amidst thousands of onlookers, NASA heralded in the next generation of space exploration with the launch of the Orion EFT 1 flight this morning at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fl. Unbeknownst to most, the flight's cargo contained a little piece of Baton Rouge as it ventured beyond low earth orbit for the first time in forty years.

As part of the LSU Space Day activities hosted in March, participating schools presented a custom designed Orion mission patch, as astronaut crews do for their missions. The winning patch, designed by Parkview Baptist students, flew on this morning's mission.

Designed by artist Zachary Donze, the mission patch's catchphrase, "Going Above and Beyond" has multiple meanings:

• The Orion test flight (EFT-1) will go above and beyond with a much higher apogee orbit.
• The future NASA Orion missions will go above and beyond all previous space exploration as astronauts prepare to venture to Mars and other deep space locations.
• The Lockheed Martin and NASA engineers, scientists, and builders of the Orion space module must go above and beyond as they design and construct a quality spacecraft that will safely endure the harsh reality of space travel.

Once the Orion safely returns to earth, NASA will recover the contents and representatives from Lockheed Martin will present the patch to Mrs. Fitzgerald and the Parkview Baptist students who participated in LSU Space Day.

For more information on the flight, please visit NASA's website.