ESA astronaut patch in space

The ESA patch worn by astronauts taken by ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet during his first International Space Station mission, Proxima, in 2017.

It features the flags of ESA's 22 member states, the national bodies responsible for space in these countries sit on ESA’s governing Council: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The patch is floating in the European-built Cupola module, the International Space Station's "window to the world." Astronauts use the seven-windowed cupola to monitor the arrival of spaceships at the orbiting lab and view the Earth below.