Apollo 17 The wing of the eagle partially overlays the Moon, suggesting man's established presence there. The gaze of Apollo and the direction of the eagle's motion embody man's intention to explore further destinations in space. The patch includes, along with the colors of the U.S. flag (red, white, and blue), the color gold, representative of a "golden age" of spaceflight that was to begin with Apollo 17. The image of Apollo in the mission insignia is a rendering of the "Apollo Belvedere" sculpture. The insignia was designed by Robert McCall, with input from the crew. Like Apollo 15 and Apollo 16,
Apollo 15 to Apollo 12, and since Apollo 11's backup crew had been designated for Apollo 13 (which did not land on the Moon), they were the first Apollo crew for a successful lunar landing mission to have backed up another such mission. Having had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the Apollo spacecraft, they could devote more of their training time as prime crew for Apollo 15 to geology and sampling techniques. The astronauts at NASA who were scientists, such as geologist Harrison Schmitt, pushed though the early Apollo missions for a greater place for science as part of the mission,