THE SOURCING WALL
The public ledger of content Orrery could not source under its licensing bar (Creative Commons / public domain, no watermark, authentic — no fan reproductions). We would rather show an honest gap than ship something we don't have the right to use. Append new walls here as we hit them.
- Hit the wall Mission & program insignia 2026-07-12VostokVoskhodSoyuz 1Soyuz 11SalyutMirBuranSoviet lunar (N1–L3)
WantedAuthentic program and mission patches for the early Soviet crewed programs, to sit beside the NASA insignia.
The wallTwo walls at once. First, most never existed: the USSR did not adopt the mission-patch tradition until Apollo–Soyuz in 1975, so Vostok, Voskhod and the first Soyuz flights simply had no patch. Second, what does exist later — Soyuz TM/TMA expedition patches, Roscosmos emblems — is copyrighted or uploaded only under fair-use, never released under a free licence.
Where we looked
- Wikimedia Commons — English keyword search
- Wikimedia Commons — Cyrillic search (Союз / Салют / Мир / Восход / Буран эмблема нашивка)
- Wikimedia Commons — category tree (Soviet space program, Buran, Roscosmos)
- ru.wikipedia — article imagery for Восток-1, Восход-2, Союз-1, Союз-11, Мир, Буран
Rejected on the bar
- roscosmos.ru / astronaut.ru and similar — copyrighted or license-unclear; astronaut.ru is a privately-run encyclopedia, not a rights holder
- Modern fan reproductions (e.g. a CC-BY Buran emblem by a game artist) — freely licensed but not authentic insignia
How we handled itThe Roscosmos agency logo stands in as the honest mark on every affected program card and page.
- Hit the wall Mission & program insignia 2026-07-12TiangongShenzhouChina Manned Space
WantedThe China Manned Space (CMS) programme emblem and Shenzhou crew patches, to sit beside the NASA insignia on the Tiangong and Shenzhou pages.
The wallChina's crewed programme does use mission patches — every Shenzhou crew has one — but the CMS emblem and the Shenzhou insignia are held under copyright by the China Manned Space Agency, not released under a free licence. Wikimedia Commons carries none of them; the only free-licensed images returned for these searches are unrelated NASA photographs.
Where we looked
- Wikimedia Commons — English keyword search (China Manned Space / Shenzhou / Tiangong emblem, patch, insignia)
- Wikimedia Commons — China Manned Space Agency logo
Rejected on the bar
- cmse.gov.cn and Chinese state media imagery — copyrighted, no free licence
- Third-party fan reproductions of Shenzhou patches — not authentic and not free
How we handled itThe CNSA agency logo stands in as the honest mark on the Tiangong and Shenzhou cards and pages.
- Hit the wall Mission & program insignia 2026-07-12HayabusaJAXA — Moon and PlanetsChandrayaanMangalyaanGaganyaan
WantedProgramme and mission insignia for Japan's JAXA and India's ISRO, to sit beside the NASA patches on their programme pages.
The wallBoth agencies do produce mission logos and emblems — Hayabusa2, SLIM, Chandrayaan-3 and the rest all have them — but they are held under the agencies' own copyright and are not released under a free licence. Wikimedia Commons carries none of them; the only free-licensed results for these searches are unrelated NASA photographs.
Where we looked
- Wikimedia Commons — English keyword search (JAXA / ISRO / Hayabusa / Chandrayaan / Mangalyaan emblem, patch, insignia, logo)
Rejected on the bar
- jaxa.jp / isro.gov.in imagery — copyrighted, no free licence
- Third-party fan reproductions — not authentic and not free
How we handled itThe JAXA and ISRO agency logos stand in as the honest mark on the affected programme cards and pages.