APRIL 17, 2007— Each time NASA names a Space Shuttle crew, the Astronauts design an embroidered cloth patch to symbolize their flight. Builders of space station modules do the same thing, and that includes the Japanese KIBO module, whose name means "hope" in Japanese. The hardware was officially unveiled at the Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday. KIBO’s patch is a blue square with a paper airplane at the top. Shuttle Commander Dom Gorie was on hand for the event. He’ll lead the crew carrying up the first section of the Japanese lab. After discussing the capabilities of the new Space Station compartment, he also talked about the visits to Japan that was required as part of training. It was that extra perk that apparently had a lot of people in the NASA Astronaut office in Houston competing for a seat on Gorie’s crew. As for the KIBO patch—is it the most unusual ever devised? Well, everyone has a favorite. Mine would have to the one for a series of experiments that flew on John Glenn’s Shuttle flight in 1998. It was called "Technology Applications and Science—02", or TAS for short. Since TAS was pronounced "TAZ", the patch featured the Shuttle being pursued by the Tazmanian Devil from the Bugs Bunny cartoons. You can e-mail me with your favorite at pduggins@wmfe.org.