 The first space patch was flown by Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova on the Vostok 6 mission in 1963; however, that was hidden from public view by the bright orange coverall that was part of the space suit at the time.At the start of the manned space age, as a rule, astronauts were pilots from a military background.These pilots took the tradition of military shoulder patches with them; most US space missions have had dedicated designs, and since the mid-1980s most Soviet/Russian flights also featured space patches.