The one lady who’s presently lively in Russia’s cosmonaut corps now has her own one-of-a-kind Barbie doll.
Anna Kikina, who turned a cosmonaut in 2012, is among the many newest position fashions chosen for Mattel’s “You Can Be Whoever You Need” marketing campaign, which is aimed toward inspiring younger ladies to pursue the career of their selecting.
“The most well-liked doll on the earth continues to encourage ladies to chase their wildest goals and clearly reveals that every of them can turn out to be whoever they need! Barbie presents a doll that embodies the picture of Anna Kikina, the one lady in Roscosmos’ cosmonaut corps,” Russia’s state area company announced on Tuesday (March 16).
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The Anna Kikina Barbie has two fashions: one sporting a blue flight go well with patterned after the cosmonaut’s coveralls worn throughout coaching, and the opposite garbed in a doll-sized model of Russia’s Orlan-MKS extravehicular exercise (EVA) spacesuit. Each outfits are adorned by miniature variations of the identical cosmonaut corps and Roscosmos patches as worn by Kikina.
Kikina reacted to the doll’s debut by sharing recollections of her personal childhood.
“As a toddler, I didn’t dream of changing into an astronaut, but when I had a Barbie cosmonaut doll, then the thought of being [one] would in all probability have come to thoughts,” Kikina stated in a press release launched by Roscosmos. “The Barbie cosmonaut, in her personal method, doesn’t solely signify the career to youngsters, but in addition makes it clear that everybody who sees it and units their intentions accordingly has an opportunity to turn out to be a cosmonaut.”
“It’s not that each lady taking part in with such a Barbie will wish to be a cosmonaut. Crucial factor is that they know they’ve the selection — they’ve the precise to decide on any career that they like,” she stated.
A 36-year-old engineer who graduated with honors from the Novosibirsk State Academy of Water Transportation Engineering (in the present day the Siberian State College of Water Transport), Kikina is just the fourth Russian woman to be selected to fly into area. She is slated to launch on her first mission, a flight to the International Space Station, in 2022.
“As we speak Anna is a task mannequin for a lot of,” Roscosmos stated. “She is each sturdy and female, daring and delicate, smart and with a superb humorousness — a vibrant persona during which professionalism and heat are harmoniously mixed.”
Like different Barbie dolls in Mattel’s “You Can Be Whoever You Need” marketing campaign and similar outreach programs all over the world, the Kikina doll is just not being made on the market to the general public. As a substitute, the cosmonaut doll might be given away in celebration of the 60 years for the reason that launch of Yuri Gagarin, the primary cosmonaut, in April 1961.
“It won’t go on sale,” Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev wrote on the Telegram messaging platform. “It may be received in a contest in honor of the 60th anniversary of the primary crewed flight into area.”
No additional particulars in regards to the contest got.
The Anna Kikina doll brings Barbie’s position as an area explorer full circle. The primary Barbie astronaut outfit, the 1965 “Barbie Miss Astronaut,” was stated to be impressed by cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova changing into the world’s first lady to fly into area two years earlier.
Within the a long time since, Barbie dolls have been launched with a sizzling pink spacesuit (“Astronaut Barbie” in 1985), in celebration of the primary moon touchdown (“Astronaut Barbie Profession Assortment Particular Version” in 1994), as a Area Camp trainee (“Area Camp Barbie” in 1998 and 2008) and because the first lady on Mars (“Mars Explorer Barbie” in 2013). Most lately, Barbie was wearing a Russian Sokol spacesuit-inspired outfit for a line celebrating the previous six a long time of profession dolls (“60th Anniversary Astronaut” in 2019) and the present assortment of Barbie “Area Discovery” dolls.
Just like the Anna Kikina doll, Mattel additionally collaborated with the European Area Company (ESA) to make two one-of-a-kind Barbie dolls modeled after Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti in 2017. Two years later, Mattel produced on the market a doll in its Barbie Inspiring Women Series honoring Sally Ride, the primary American lady to launch into area.
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