A Barbie that has been into space will go on public display for the first time as part of the upcoming Design Museum exhibition to mark the 65th anniversary of the world-famous doll brand. The doll is a likeness of European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut and Europe’s first female commander of the International Space Station (ISS), Samantha Cristoforetti, and it spent six months orbiting the Earth on the ISS with her in 2022. The 47-year-old, who is a former Italian air force fighter pilot, told the PA news agency: “I think it’s a great achievement for the overall team to have this Barbie on display and to have it connect to many more people through this exhibition”.
Europe’s first female commander of the ISS, ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, with her lookalike Barbie doll on the ISS (ESA) During her time in orbit, she answered questions from five young girls, including why she wanted to become an astronaut, and video footage of the conversations will be shown in Barbie: The Exhibition alongside the doll. Cristoforetti told PA it was an “opportunity to reach out to girls and boys to share the experience of an astronaut as a potential path in life, as a potential future, as a potential career..
. or as an adventure that you can be part of”. Toy company Mattel, which makes Barbie, and the ESA released the Samantha Cristoforetti Barbie doll in 2021 to coincide with World Space Week, and to help encourage girls to become “the next generation of astronauts, engine.
