United States astronaut badges are the various badges of the United States which are awarded to military and civilian personnel of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the various child departments of the Department of Defense, or a private space-faring entity, who have performed (or in some cases, completed training for) a spaceflight.

[3] In the 1960s, the United States Department of Defense awarded astronaut badges to military and civilian pilots who flew aircraft higher than 50 miles (80 kilometres).

[4] American test pilots Michael Melvill and Brian Binnie were each awarded a commercial astronaut badge by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) when they flew sub-orbital missions aboard the Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne rocket spaceplane.

To earn an astronaut badge, a U.S. Air Force or U.S. Navy and Marine Corps officer must complete all required training and participate in a space flight more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) above the Earth.

In 2007, the U.S. Air Force announced the opening of astronaut mission specialists positions to enlisted personnel who met certain eligibility requirements.

Once they have flown a mission, they are awarded the astronaut device, which is affixed to the shield of their army aviation badge.

A unique badge was created for individuals serving as payload specialists on NASA Space Shuttle missions.

As the space program expanded, NASA realized it needed a new symbol to cover personnel on all missions, and created a new lapel pin isolating the "astronaut device" previously applied to flight wings.

A second unique pin was made for Nick Hague after he became the first NASA astronaut to experience an in-flight launch abort.

On October 11, 2018, the Soyuz MS-10 mission, part of Expedition 57 to the International Space Station, aborted after one of the four boosters failed to separate properly from the first stage core.

The abort happened late enough in the launch sequence that the Soyuz capsule coasted to an apogee of 93 km (58 mi) after separating from the disintegrating rocket.

Williams was originally scheduled to fly to the Moon as Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 12 but was killed in a plane crash before he was officially assigned to the flight.