Parche de las sardinas

Like all modern astronaut classes, the 1996 class also has a funny nickname. The 1996 candidates are known as the "Sardines". They were named so because the 96 class, with 44 candidates - including international candidates, is the largest ASCAN Class ever selected. They are packed like sardines.

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A Personal Story...

I arrived in Houston in August of 1996 as part of "Group 16." As we are the biggest class selected to date we were nicknamed the Sardines. Given the quality of most callsigns offered to new guys, we were happy to take this one. We've got "one of each" in this group.

Dave Brown (NASA Mission Specialist)

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..."When I got the news I'd been here almost four years, and assignments kind of go not strictly by class, but pretty much by class. And I was in the class of '96, and we were just starting to get some people assigned to the flights. We have forty-four in our class. We're the Sardines, so we're the, the largest class of, U.S. astronauts ever picked, and so for our class, it's a long process. You don't get all forty-four assigned in the same year; there just aren't enough flight spots. And, so we'd start getting some folks assigned, and so you start getting excited every time someone from your class gets assigned. You feel great for them, but it's also one closer to you, hopefully, getting along the way to a flight assignment. And, I did not find out that I was going to get assigned until the night before they announced"...

Jim Kelly, STS-102 pilot, pre-flight interview.

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Spot the patch

German astronaut Gerhard Thiele aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour during STS-99 in February 2000, note the decal of the funny patch on one of the mid deck lockers.

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Something Different...

This "patch", for Canadian Astronaut Julie Payette first Space Shuttle mission (STS-96), was done by Jacques Tiziou. Its artwork is in the same style as the Susan Still Escargots patch. The design was produced only in the form of round Black on Gold stickers. No patches were made.