Name Tag, Space Shuttle Astronaut (McCandless)

Among the items issued to astronauts are Velcro-backed name tags that can be attached to their flight suits and jackets. This name tag is a spare for mission specialist astronaut Bruce McCandless II, who flew aboard the Space Shuttle in 1984 (Challenger, STS 41-B) and 1990 (Discovery, STS-31). He was the first person to fly the self-propelled backpack away from the Shuttle, an experience captured in an iconic photo of the astronaut as a human satellite, flying solo above Earth. NASA transferred a number of spare astronaut name tags to the Museum over the years.