— Earth to astronaut Barbie, we’ve a brand new area collectible … however in all probability not for the entire causes Mattel meant.
The toy firm is celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of its first spacesuit-clad style doll with a brand new copy of Barbie Miss Astronaut. Initially offered in 1965 as an outfit accent alone, the 2025 set features a doll with hair and “daring pink lip” styled after these accessible on the time, “bendable legs to take that iconic first step on the lunar floor” and duplicate silver spacesuit, white helmet, gloves, brown moon boots and American flag.
Impressed by the clothes worn by NASA’s Mercury 7 astronauts, Barbie famously donned an astronaut go well with two years after the world’s first lady lifted off for area and virtually 20 years earlier than a U.S. lady adopted.
The packaging for the Miss Astronaut reissue additionally pays tribute to the unique with its pink and white striped border. A pastel-colored illustration of a 1950’s-style sci-fi rocket hovering beneath a ringed planet replaces the stable orange that backed the 1965 “Unique Fashions” set.
Sixty years later, Mattel explains the importance of the doll on the 2025 field.
“One tiny step for Barbie, one large leap for dollkind!,” reads the textual content on the reverse of the Barbie Miss Astronaut sixtieth Anniversary Doll, which went up on the market for $55 on the Mattel Creations web site at midnight EDT (0500 GMT) on Friday (March 21), after two days of unique entry for Barbie Membership 59 members.
“Lightyears forward of her time — Miss Astronaut first went galactic in 1965, earlier than any human in area.”
Wait, what?
As Mattel has even famous earlier than, the Miss Astronaut outfit got here out solely after Soviet-era cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova made historical past by orbiting Earth in 1963. And that was two years after the world’s first human in area, Yuri Gagarin, did the identical. (The primary American to succeed in area, Alan Shepard, did so a month after Gagarin in Might 1961.)
The Mattel Creations web site has comparable wording, however corrects the historical past: “Gentle years forward of her time, Barbie introduced her pioneering spirit to area exploration in 1965, properly earlier than males had landed on the moon.”
The primary people to discover the lunar floor, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, touched down on July 20, 1969.
It’s unclear if Mattel acknowledged the error on the field and altered the textual content on the web site or if the completely different descriptions had been unrelated. It’s also unknown if the corporate has any plans to alter the textual content on the field. Mattel representatives weren’t instantly accessible to remark.
This isn’t the primary time Mattel has reproduced the 1965 Miss Astronaut. An analogous doll was offered as a part of the 2010 “My Favourite Profession” collection.
Within the 60 years since Miss Astronaut, Mattel has additionally launched a number of completely different type astronaut outfits for Barbie, together with a vivid pink and silver spacesuit “with sparkly skirt and tights” in 1985 and an Apollo 11-inspired go well with in commemoration of the twenty fifth anniversary of the primary moon touchdown in 1994.
In 2022, two Barbie dolls sporting one-piece outfits loosely based mostly on Russia’s Sokol stress fits, had been launched to the Worldwide Area Station as a part of “Mission DreamStar,” an outreach undertaking to encourage ladies to contemplate careers in aerospace and science, expertise, engineering and arithmetic (STEM) fields.
The flown dolls have now joined different Earth-based astronaut Barbie dolls as a part of the Smithsonian’s assortment and are on show on the Nationwide Air and Area Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Middle in northern Virginia.
Mattel has additionally honored actual astronauts with Barbie dolls bearing their likeness. As a part of the model’s Inspiring Girls collection, Barbie dolls have been styled after first American lady in area Sally Trip, Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti with the European Area Company (ESA).
Whether or not the error on the again of the Barbie Miss Astronaut sixtieth Anniversary Doll field ends in it being wanted by collectors remains to be to be seen, however because the field for the 2010 reissue learn and nonetheless stays true, “Immediately, the unique Miss Astronaut Barbie style is highly-coveted and laborious to search out. However it’s again — for you, to share with the following technology, to like eternally!”
