LONDON.- The Design Museum today announced a history-making and out-of-this-world Barbie will be included in its upcoming major exhibition on the design history of the famous doll.

A major highlight of Barbie®: The Exhibition — which opens next week — will be the very first public display of a unique Barbie doll that has been into space. The doll spent six months orbiting the Earth on the International Space Station in 2022 as part of a landmark mission.

The Barbie is a likeness of European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut and Europe’s first female commander of the International Space Station, Samantha Cristoforetti.

Cristoforetti blasted off with her lookalike Barbie in April 2022 on a 170-day mission to the space station which also saw Cristoforetti make history as the first European woman to complete a spacewalk.

While in orbit and accompanied by her doll, she answered questions from five young girls as part of Barbie and the ESA’s joint mission to encourage girls to become the next generation of astronauts, engineers and scientists. Video footage of these conversations — with both Samantha and Barbie floating in zero gravity — will be shown in the exhibition alongside the doll.

The Cristoforetti doll has never been displayed since its return to Earth. It comes to London on loan from the European Space Agency, and its inclusion in the Design Museum’s Barbie exhibition marks the latest chapter in Barbie’s association with space travel, which will be highlighted in the show.

Also in the exhibition will be a rare surviving edition of Barbie’s first connection to the cosmos. A silver, all-in-one ‘Miss Astronaut’ costume was Barbie’s first depiction as an astronaut, and its release in 1965 came four years before Neil Armstrong reached the moon, during the height of the Space Race. It comes on loan to London from the Mattel archives in Los Angeles.

Alongside this will be a doll where Barbie demonstrated her scientific prowess in a metallic pink spacesuit. It was released in 1985, shortly after Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.

The Cristoforetti Barbie is one of the most unusual dolls that visitors will come face-to-face with in Barbie®: The Exhibition. Other rare or one-of-a-kind dolls which will go on show include the previously announced unique prototype of the very first Talking Barbie which launched in 1968, and one of the earliest first edition Barbie dolls — known by collectors as the ‘Number 1 Barbie’ — and recently acquired by the Design Museum for its collection.

Among the other 180 exhibited dolls will be some of the most recognisable and best-selling dolls, including the ‘surfer girl’ Sunset Malibu Barbie from 1971 – one of the most popular of that decade – and the ground-breaking Day to Night Barbie from 1985 that was designed to reflect the workplace revolution for women in the 1980s, and which saw Barbie’s work-attire pink suit transform into a chic evening gown. There will also be two examples of 1992’s Totally Hair Barbie, the best-selling Barbie of all time which has sold over 10 million across the globe.

Opening to mark the 65th anniversary of the Barbie brand, Barbie: The Exhibition, in partnership with Mattel, will explore Barbie’s changing appearance in relation to evolving cultural shifts around diversity and representation. It will present exclusive, behind-the-scenes insights into Mattel’s design processes and will offer a detailed exploration of the Barbie doll as a technically and materially innovative creation.

The dolls will be showcased alongside a vast array of other items and accessories from the universe of Barbie, displayed together in a stunning exhibition landscape designed by Sam Jacob Studio. Over 250 pieces will be on show in total, dating from 1959 to the present day, and collectively charting 65 years of design evolution of the world’s most famous doll.

Danielle Thom, Curator of Barbie®: The Exhibition at the Design Museum, said, “We’re so excited that the first time anyone can see Samantha’s doll since it returned from the International Space Station is at the Design Museum this summer. Its remarkable journey on Samantha’s history-making mission 400km above the Earth was one of the most dramatic moments in Barbie’s evolving story. Even more so when you consider that one of Barbie’s earliest careers was as an astronaut, just as space exploration was becoming a reality. To be able to show an example of the first astronaut Barbie from 1965, alongside one that 55 years later blasted into the cosmos itself, is a very special moment that will delight Barbie fans and all visitors to our exhibition. We are so grateful to Samantha and to the European Space Agency for making it possible.”

Samantha Cristoforetti, said, “I am thrilled that my Barbie, who flew with me on the International Space Station, will have a starring role at Barbie®: The Exhibition in London's Design Museum. It's wonderful that so many people, especially boys and girls, will get the chance to meet my Barbie from space!"

Barbie®: The Exhibition will open at the Design Museum on 05 July 2024.