Earth is shown reflected on the backside of the helmet.
The Space Shuttle Columbia forms the interface between the Earth and the heavens, the back and front sides of the helmet in profile. The three red lines emerging from Columbia represent the astronaut symbol as well as the robot arm which will be used to deploy and retrieve the Spartan satellite. Gold flames outlining the helmet visor represent the corona of the Sun, which will be studied by Spartan. The flag of Ukraine is next to the name of the payload specialist who is the first person from that nation to fly on the Space Shuttle. The data in this section are updated frequently.