Blast off to new worlds with the Barbie® Space Discovery™ Space Station playset and inspire imaginations! It was on a DOD [Department of Defense] flight, and that's why you might not have seen much on it," said Steve Denison in an interview with collectSPACE.

Mattel did not know about Barbie being aboard STS-38 at the time, but learned of the doll's mission a couple of years later, when the company highlighted the flight in a newsletter for its employees. "Another impressive coup for a Barbie doll," the 1992 issue of Mattel Matters read, "the only question now is, what's left?" These two space-flown Barbies have been added as a special addition to the toys case that has been on display in the McDonnell Space Hangar at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center," Margaret Weitekamp, curator of the National Air and Space Museum's social and cultural history of spaceflight collection, said in an interview with collectSPACE. "They join three Barbie dolls in space outfits that have already been on display." The pair of dolls sent into space are modeled after the astronauts and cosmonauts who live on the station. Each is dressed in the same one-piece outfit loosely based on the Sokol pressure garments worn by crew members who launch and land on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft.Over the past 57 years, Barbie's space wear has varied from fashion-forward to miniature replicas of the real thing. The first astronaut outfit, "Barbie Miss Astronaut" released in 1965, was inspired by the silverly suits worn by the Mercury astronauts. Twenty years later, Barbie modeled a bright pink and silver spacesuit "with sparkly skirt and tights." In 1998, Mattel released Space Camp Barbie (not in our collection), whose blue flight suit is much more in line with what actual astronauts were wearing during the 1990s. Based on popular Space Camp programs for children and teenagers, this doll was the first space-themed Barbie that wasn’t an astronaut. Unlike Astronaut Barbie, who represents a far-off future goal that children must wait to achieve until they are older, Space Camp Barbie represents a real and immediately attainable way for children to engage with and study space. 2000s and 2010s

As it happened, the same person who sewed Barbie's custom spacesuit went on to work for the National Archives, where in 1999 she helped arrange for the doll to be temporarily displayed at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Kansas, in conjunction with an exhibit celebrating 40 years of Barbie. Now, in the same week that Barbie is launching onto the silver screen in a new movie starring Margot Robbie as the title character, the flown dolls are having a premiere of their own. (The timing of the exhibit's debut was not tied to the film's release.) Barbie® Space Discovery™ dolls and toys inspire kids to let their imaginations blast off into space!

Frequently Asked Questions

The Barbie dolls now in space are expected to return to Earth this summer, when they will be sent to the Smithsonian to go on display at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in northern Virginia. The idea of a Barbie doll with two outfits – one for work and one for after work – was not unique to this doll. Mattel’s 1985 Day-to-Night Barbie was based around that exact concept. By day, this doll wore a pink blazer and pencil skirt and carried a pink briefcase. By night, she let her hair down (literally and metaphorically) and donned a sparkly pink evening gown.

Barbie® teacher doll wears a blue dress with planetary graphics, white shoes and eyeglasses; the student has a dress with space print and pink boots. This box from 1994 Astronaut Barbie is in the Museum’s collection, along with the corresponding doll. Later, the astronauts inscribed and autographed one of the photos for Denison, writing in jest that Barbie was still needed for their next simulator run (Barbie and Denison left NASA within months of the mission ending.) Since 2019, Mattel has honored real-life astronauts with Barbie dolls bearing their likeness. Part of the brand's Inspiring Women series, Barbie dolls have been styled after first American woman in space Sally Ride and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina. At first glance, they appear to be like all of the other Barbie "Space Discovery" dolls found on toy store shelves — and that very well may be the point.Another Barbie resembling European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti is set to launch to the space station with her real-life counterpart later this month. The Space Discovery line, now for sale exclusively at Target, includes Barbie dolls identical dolls to those launched to the station, as well as dolls of Barbie's friends dressed in spacey outfits and related playsets.

The science classroom playset comes with all the pieces needed to launch learning adventures, including Barbie® teacher doll, a student small doll, furniture and accessories! After welcoming 1994’s Astronaut Barbie to Air and Space, the Museum went on a long Barbie-collecting hiatus that ended only recently with the addition of two dolls from 2021. Barbie, on the other hand, never rests. Between 2000 and 2020, seven total space-themed Barbie dolls were released. Most notably, Barbie did what no human has yet achieved and traveled to Mars! In 2013, Mars Explorer Barbie claimed the Red Planet for Barbieland. Clad in a white spacesuit with shimmery pink detailing, this doll perfectly blends the more realistic, practical styles of the 1960s and ‘90s with the hyperfeminine fashions of the 1980s. As it turns out, the two Barbie dolls that recently went on display at the Smithsonian are not the first to have flown into space, contrary to how they are described in the exhibit. The National Air and Space Museum on Tuesday (July 18) debuted on display the first-ever Barbie dolls to actually fly into space. The two fashion figures spent several months on board the International Space Station (ISS) in 2022 as part of "Mission DreamStar," a joint outreach project by Mattel and the ISS U.S. National Laboratory. The dolls were then donated by the toy company to the Smithsonian.But what sets these two very-well-traveled dolls apart may be less important than why they are just like all the other Barbies in children's hands, Weitekamp said. The dolls are off-the-shelf, rather than being custom made or dressed for space.