The link between the United States and Russia is symbolically represented by the Space Shuttle Endeavour and Space Station Mir orbiting above the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska. The success of the joint U. S. - Russian missions is depicted by the Shuttle and Mir colored by the rising sun in the background. A shadowed representation of the International Space Station rising with the sun represents the future program for which the Shuttle-Mir missions are prototypes. The inside rim of the patch describes the outline of the number eight representing STS-89 as the eighth Shuttle-Mir docking mission. The nine stars represent the nine joint missions to be flown of the program and when combined with the number eight in the rim reflect the mission number. The nine stars also symbolize the children of the crew members who will be the future beneficiaries of the joint development work of the space programs of the two countries. Along the rim are the crew members' names with Dave Wolf's name on the left and Andy Thomas' name on the right, the returning and upgoing crew members. In between and at the bottom is the name of Salizhan Sharipov in Cyrillic. The red, white, and blue of the rim reflect the colors of the American and Russian flags which are also represented in the rim on either side of the joined spacecraft.