New Barbie doll celebrates 60 years as an astronaut, but forgets when humans first flew into space

Earth to astronaut Barbie, we have a new space collectible … but probably not for all of the reasons Mattel intended.

The toy company is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its first spacesuit-clad fashion doll with a new reproduction of Barbie Miss Astronaut. Originally sold in 1965 as an outfit accessory alone, the 2025 set includes a doll with hair and “bold red lip” styled after those available at the time, “bendable legs to take that iconic first step on the lunar surface” and replica silver spacesuit, white helmet, gloves, brown moon boots and American flag.

Inspired by the garments worn by NASA’s Mercury 7 astronauts, Barbie famously donned an astronaut suit two years after the world’s first woman lifted off for space and almost two decades before a U.S. woman followed.

Mattel’s Barbie Miss Astronaut 60th Anniversary Doll reproduces the Mercury-astronaut inspired silver spacesuit that the company released for its Barbie dolls in 1965, 60 years ago. (Image credit: Mattel)

The packaging for the Miss Astronaut reissue also pays tribute to the original with its pink and white striped border. A pastel-colored illustration of a 1950s-style sci-fi rocket soaring under a ringed planet replaces the solid orange that backed the 1965 “Exclusive Fashions” set.

Sixty years later, Mattel explains the significance of the doll on the 2025 box.

“One tiny step for Barbie, one giant leap for dollkind!” reads the text on the reverse of the Barbie Miss Astronaut 60th Anniversary Doll, which went up for sale for $55 on the Mattel Creations website at midnight EDT (0500 GMT) on Friday (March 21), after two days of exclusive access for Barbie Club 59 members.

“Lightyears ahead of her time — Miss Astronaut first went galactic in 1965, before any human in space.”

Wait, what?

As Mattel has even noted before, the Miss Astronaut outfit came out only after Soviet-era cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova made history by orbiting Earth in 1963. And that was two years after the world’s first human in space, Yuri Gagarin, did the same. (The first American to reach space, Alan Shepard, did so a month after Gagarin in May 1961.)

The Mattel Creations website has similar wording, but corrects the history: “Light years ahead of her time, Barbie brought her pioneering spirit to space exploration in 1965, well before men had landed on the moon.”

The first humans to explore the lunar surface, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, touched down on July 20, 1969.

It is unclear if Mattel recognized the error on the box and changed the text on the website or if the different descriptions were unrelated. It is also unknown if the company has any plans to change the text on the box. Mattel representatives were not immediately available to comment.

a vintage astronaut outfit for Barbie dolls still in its original box

The 1965 “Exclusive Fashions by Mattel” Miss Astronaut set came only with the outfit, including silver spacesuit, white helmet, brown gloves, moon boots with zipper and an American flag. (Image credit: Christie’s)

This is not the first time Mattel has reproduced the 1965 Miss Astronaut. A similar doll was sold as part of the 2010 “My Favorite Career” series.

In the 60 years since Miss Astronaut, Mattel has also released multiple different style astronaut outfits for Barbie, including a bright pink and silver spacesuit “with sparkly skirt and tights” in 1985 and an Apollo 11-inspired suit in 1994, in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the first moon landing.

In 2022, two Barbie dolls sporting one-piece outfits loosely based on Russia’s Sokol pressure suits were launched to the International Space Station as part of “Mission DreamStar,” an outreach project to inspire girls to consider careers in aerospace and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

The flown dolls have now joined other Earth-based astronaut Barbie dolls as part of the Smithsonian’s collection and are on display at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in northern Virginia.

Mattel has also honored real astronauts with Barbie dolls bearing their likeness. As part of the brand’s Inspiring Women series, Barbie dolls have been styled after first American woman in space Sally Ride, Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (ESA).

Whether the error on the back of the Barbie Miss Astronaut 60th Anniversary Doll box results in it being sought after by collectors is still to be seen, but as the box for the 2010 reissue read and still remains true, “Today, the original Miss Astronaut Barbie fashion is highly-coveted and hard to find. But it’s back — for you, to share with the next generation, to love forever!”

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