Redmond’s very own “Rocketman,” Dave Ginsberg is one of 15 finalists in a NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) contest to design a patch commemorating the end of the Space Shuttle program.

NASA Shuttle program managers will serve as judges, choosing a single design in February. NASA employees can also vote through Jan. 31 —the deadline has been extended— in a “People’s Choice” category.

And although votes from the general public won’t have any bearing on which design wins, you can have some fun by viewing the entries and picking out your favorite (also through Jan. 31) at http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-011110a.html.

Psst … Ginsberg’s entry is No. 8.

The winning patch — as chosen by the upper echelon at NASA — will be flown on an upcoming mission and then presented to the honored designer. If Ginsberg wins, this won’t be the first time his art has been launched into space. A print of his artwork “Spaceship Earth” orbited aboard the International Space Station for seven months in 2006-7.

Closer to home, you might have seen Ginsberg’s work at Redmond’s first Digital Arts Festival in 2008, or his mural of the solar system at Seattle’s Museum of Flight.

Ginsberg has also been a greeter for visiting astronauts and a lead educator for kids’ programs at the Museum of Flight.

“We really live in amazing times,” he noted. “When I was a kid, those were rare opportunities to see or meet astronauts. Now you can meet them at the Museum of Flight and they are such great, smart, inspiring people.”

Ginsberg’s fascination with “all things spacey” goes back to when he was nine years old and watched the lunar landing on TV.

Plus, he’d always had a flair for art, perhaps a genetic gift. His dad was an illustrator for the U.S. Air Force. Copies of beautiful “coffee table” magazines such as Look, Life and National Geographic were abundant at his home. He said he was especially influenced by Norman Rockwell’s 1967 painting of an astronaut stepping off the lunar module onto the surface of the moon.

Ginsberg grew up to have a “day job” as an aerospace engineer, working for Boeing, which he still enjoys. And if not for that connection, he wouldn’t have been eligible to enter the Space Shuttle patch design contest.

“A friend at Boeing pointed me to a Web site. … It was open to all current and former employees of NASA and their contractors, including Boeing,” he explained. “I entered about two weeks before the deadline. That’s what I did over Thanksgiving break.”

The Virginia Tech grad also produces cool, kitschy Christmas cards and other art projects, using techniques he learned from a University of Washington Extension course for game animators.

To learn more about Dave Ginsberg, visit daveginsberg.net and pixel-planet-pictures.com.