That cloth circle that’s going to be attached to the Rakia Mission working overall
The Patch, that small round patch that’s going to be fixed onto my working overall, has been designed in such a way that it provides a multi-layered expression. Multiculturalism with a touch of scripture; the awesomeness of space, the mission and its meaning and of course also the memory. Form and content. The design consists of a set of circles that gradually change color from the fiery shades to the soothing shades of water to the creative violet. These create to orbits, one ascending and the other descending into the depths of space in the background.
The dots represent the orbit around Earth, which the International Space Station completes 16 times each day. The name of The Rakia Mission is written in Hebrew, Arabic and English, noting the year the mission is scheduled to get underway. Around the circumference of the patch, against a black background, part of a verse from the Book of Genesis is written describing the creation of the Heavens. On the body of the overall itself I asked for a small leaf to be embroidered. This is the symbol of the Ramon Foundation, representing the tender shoot of renewal and the flame of memory.
The mission’s name was chosen in accordance with public sentiment, after thousands logged in and voted, and after we received hundreds of names and suggestions and after we narrowed it down to three finalist names: Rakia (Heaven), Aluma (Beam) and Kidma (Progress). Of these, more than 60% voted for Rakia as the name of the mission carrying the second Israeli in space.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth“. With these words the description of the creation of the world opens the Book of Genesis. And on the second day of creation: “And God said, Let there be a firmament [Rakia] in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament [Rakia], and divided the waters which were under the firmament [Rakia] from the waters which were above the firmament [Rakia]: and it was so. And God called the firmament [Rakia] Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day”.
The sky, the beginning of the infinity of creation, contains the universe and all of its heavenly bodies. The second day was dedicated exclusively to the creation of the heaven, which emphasizes its importance as an enabler of the continued act of creation and the development of every living being and plant on the face of the Earth. Heaven, in my mind, is the atmosphere that differentiates our planet from the rest of the heavenly bodies.
Beyond the initial meaning infused into this word from the Scriptures, the name Rakia evokes the memory of Ilan who, to our great sorrow, lost his life on his mission along with his companions while re-entering the atmosphere from space. During his mission, 107-STS, they played John Lennon’s song Imagine, which contains the line “Above us only sky”, which Ilan translated into “Above us only heaven [Rakia]”. These words became the title Rona gave to the book she wrote based on the journals Ilan wrote, and those written by his son, Asaf. Ilan, Asaf and Rona Ramon.
Besides the Israeli scientific experiments I will be carrying out while on the International Space Station, Rakia is also a significant educational mission. For this reason, my tightly packed schedule includes many hours dedicated to lessons, in Hebrew, which I will be delivering to Israel’s students, as well as to other educational initiatives that will be selected in the period leading up to lift-off.
Attached is the Rakia logo on the overall
The logo and patch were designed by “Brave Branding”
Yours, Eytan Stibbe
