Astronaut pin

The astronaut pin was a special lapel pin worn on the suit lapel of an astronaut. It was metal (about an inch long) and depicted a shooting star streaking through a ring (see the Apollo 14 emblem).

grades

The pin was in two grades: silver and gold. The silver pin was given to trainees who had completed training and were given the title of astronaut. The gold pin was given to astronauts who had actually flown in space.

special grade

There was a unique astronaut pin made for Chief Astronaut Deke Slayton in 1967. It was gold in color, but instead of the star, it had a small diamond in it's place. It was made at the request of the crew of Apollo 1 as a tribute to Deke Slayton's work at NASA. The idea was that everyone in the Astronaut office thought that Slayton would never fly in space (due to his heart murmur), but as they knew that it was because of him that they managed to fly in space, he should wear a gold pin rather than a silver one. As they knew that Slayton would refuse to wear the exact same gold pin as veteran astronauts, the diamond was added. It was supposed to have been flown on board the Apollo 1 spacecraft when it was launched into space, then given to Slayton after the mission was over. However, the Apollo 1 crew died in the launch pad fire in January 1967. The pin was given to Slayton by the widows of the dead crew as a token of condolence.

some pin stories

Slayton's diamond-studded gold pin was flown to the moon on Apollo 11 in July 1969. Neil Armstrong took the pin on his historic moonwalk and left it there at Tranquillity Base. This information was not divulged at the time.

Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean took his silver pin to the moon in November 1969 and left it on the lunar surface. He said later that since he'd be wearing a gold pin after the mission, he wouldn't need his silver one any more, so what better place to leave it than on the moon?