Item: Apollo 13 Lunar Module Aquarius flown stowage assembly netting and piece of beta cloth
Size: stowage assembly netting (4 x 3 x 3.5 cm aprox.), beta cloth (3 x 2.3 x 2.4 cm). Container size: 4.5 cm, each.

Description:

This segments of netting and Beta cloth material were part of Lunar Module Aquarius and went around the Moon on the flight of Apollo 13 during April 11 to 17, 1970. The segments were cut from an Interim Stowage Assembly that was removed from Aquarius prior to LM jettison just before the reentry into Earth's atmosphere.

Aft stowage assembly netting of Apollo 16. The piece of beta cloth and netting from Apollo 13 in my collection comes from this area of the Lunar Module. Credit: NASA/Apollo Lunar Surface Journal

After the return to Earth, James Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise presented segments of this netting material as a thank-you to key support personel. Fred Haise still had some of this material that he later offered as a means of raising funds to support the Infinity Science Center.

Obtained through The Space Collective.

Item: Apollo beta cloth.
Size: 21 x 29.2 cm (presentation). 2.9 x 3.2 cm. (fragment).

Description: Attached to this presentation is a segment of beta cloth dating from the 1960's as used in NASA's Apollo space program.

Beta cloth, a woven fiberglass fabric, was developed following the Apollo 1 fire. It could protect against temperatures up to 650°C, and was incorporated into the Apollo/Skylab A7L space suits giving astronauts a better chance to escape a launch pad fire. The beta cloth was coated with Teflon to increase durability and prohibit abrasion during use.

The Apollo space suit, produced by ILC, was comprised of three major parts, an inner layer for comfort, a middle pressure garment layer and an ouer layer known as the thermal micrometeroid garment (TMG). The TMG contained multiple layers of aluminized mylar and fabrics to reflect radiation and reduce thermal conductivity. This was encapsulated by the outer most layer which was covered in beta cloth fabric.

Item: Harrison Schmitt beta cloth name tag
Size: 19.2 x 6.2 cm.

Description: This beta cloth name tag corresponds to the type II (despite the "III" inscription on this item) - showing the first initial and surname of the astronaut, using the same typeface as the Type I tags (Futura condensed) printed with dark blue ink, as it was used by the Lunar Module Pilot. This style of nametag was used on the Inflight Coverall Garment (ICG, on the chest), Constant wear garment (CWG, on the chest), portable life support system (PLSS, on the back cover), PLSS oxygen purge system (OPS, on the top cover), and on the PLSS remote control unit (RCU, on the cover).

Harrison Schmitt wearing the Inflight Coverall Garment. Credit: NASA.

More information: Crew Patch Reference Guide / Beta cloth patches

Item: Apollo 11 beta cloth patch Roma Chemical presentation.
Size: 30.3 x 23 cm.
Manufacturer: Roma Chemical.

Description:

Owens Corning contracted out the printing of NASA's beta cloth patches to the Screen Print Corp. of Coventry Rhode Island. There the insignia were screen printed onto rolls of beta cloth using Roma Chemical Questral pigments.

These were then cut into 9" squares (or 5½" in the case of the ASTP patches) with the printed designs at the centers. The hand-drawn 'cut lines' for the edges of these squares are often visible on one or more sides of beta cloth patches, as can be seen in the example on the left.

The beta cloth patches were supplied to NASA in this form, and many were carried as souvenirs on missions without any further treatment.

In mid-2017 a large stock of Roma Chemical Apollo 11 patch presentations (over 250) was discovered and began to be offered on eBay.

Item: Apollo Beta cloth American flag patch

Size: 14 x 20 cm. (flag: 6.5 x 12.1 cm.).

Manufacturer: Owens Corning Fiberglas Corp.

Description: After the fire of Apollo 1 on January 27, 1967, NASA worked with Owens-Corning and DuPont to develop beta cloth, a fireproof cloth of woven fiberglass coated with Teflon, as a replacement for the nylon outer layer of the Apollo/Skylab A7L space suit. This American flag is the rarer-smaller of the patches to find. The larger were also used on the Lunar Rover, whilst this is a patch that might of been applied to the shoulder area of the Apollo Space Suit.

Information source:

http://crewpatches.com/crewpatches_betacloth.shtml

Item: Apollo 11 Beta cloth mission patch
Size: 10.8 x 10.8 cm.
Manufacturer: Owens Corning Fiberglas Corp.

Description: This patch corresponds to the second design variant without the black outlines of the lettering and Earth, thus avoiding some errors of misalignment during the production of the previous version.

This variant also presents a simplification of the details in the landmasses on the Earth and in the dark crater details on the lunar surface.

It's not clear when the design was changed but this variant is the one included in the complete Apollo project presentation piece created by Owens Corning in the mid 1970s and is also the version incorporated in the Owens Corning Apollo 11 lucites.

This particular patch in my collection seems to have been stitched by a previous owner for presentation purposes.

Information source:
http://crewpatches.com/crewpatches_betacloth.shtml