Barbie Space Discovery Space Station Playset with Space Explorer Doll, Puppy, Workstation, Satellite Space Scenes & 20 Space Station Items:Chair, Test Tubes, Microscope, Puppy Bed, 3 - 7Years Old

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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. 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. 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® Space Discovery™ dolls and toys inspire kids to let their imaginations blast off into space!

This is our first chance to have Barbie in a spacesuit that depicts a spacesuit that women have actually worn. This is a spacesuit that is based on the Russian Sokol suits," Weitekamp said. "So we are now able to show a nice array of the ways that Barbie has allowed people to connect with the idea of going into space and then what is actually happening in spaceflight right now." This box from 1994 Astronaut Barbie is in the Museum’s collection, along with the corresponding doll.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! Programs Learning resources Plan a field trip Educator professional development Education monthly theme 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 out-of-this-world set makes a great gift for kids 3 to 7 years old, especially those who love space, science and shooting for the stars! Open the set to reveal a workstation and turn the star pattern thumbwheel to switch between different space scenes in the space station window!

Two of the iconic fashion dolls are now on board the International Space Station (ISS), where they are part of "Mission DreamStar," an outreach project to inspire girls to consider careers in aerospace and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. As revealed by Mattel on Thursday (April 14), the dolls have been in Earth orbit since February as part of a collaboration between the toy company and the ISS U.S. National Laboratory. 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 2010sAs 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. Have you ever dreamed of what it would it be like to go to outer space? I know I have!" says an animated version of Barbie in the episode.

Released 13 years before NASA accepted its first female astronauts and 18 years before the first American woman would go to space, the Miss Astronaut outfitted doll was ahead of her time. As such, she served the important purpose of showing young girls that they too could dream of spaceflight before there were women astronauts at NASA to be such role models. 1980s

In 2021, Mattel released its most recent astronaut doll with the Barbie Space Discovery line. This version of astronaut Barbie wears a white spacesuit with pink and blue detailing, white gloves, and white boots. The best part about this doll is that it's actually been to space! This is the version of Barbie that was chosen for Mattel’s Mission DreamStar expedition to the International Space Station in 2022. We're always fascinated to learn new things about the richness of spaceflight in the decades that have come before," said Margaret Weitekamp, curator of the National Air and Space Museum's social and cultural history of spaceflight collection, "though it does not change the museum's interests in the first officially flown Barbie dolls to go to the International Space Station. I think that the distinction of those toys being used explicitly for an educational purpose to inspire the next generation in STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] still stands.