Cowboy Boot, Right, Danny Olivas, STS-128

Astronaut John D. “Danny” Olivas ordered these hand-made, custom cowboy boots as a memento of his second space shuttle mission, STS-128 on Discovery in 2009. The crew’s mission patch design embroidered on the front depicts the Earth, shuttle, and space station arrayed around the golden symbol of the astronaut corps. A native of El Paso, Texas, where the Lucchese Boot Company is located, Olivas celebrated his first mission the same way. He wore these boots to work at NASA, in public appearances with his blue flight suit, and in his private life as a symbol of his Texas heritage and spaceflight experience. The cowboy boots worn on Earth, like the spacesuit boots he wore during spacewalks, stood for an important part of his identity. Olivas presented these boots to the Museum in 2016 when he was the featured guest speaker in a program here.