Amelia Earhart Scarf to be Flown to the Space Station

This weekend, the story of legendary explorer Amelia Earhart will be told in an epic movie called "Amelia". Earhart will be played by Hilary Swank (who bares more than a fleeting resemblance to the aviation pioneer, great casting) and the film will recount her exploits up until the point when her plane disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during an attempt to be the first woman to fly around the world in 1937.

Earhart, who became famous as the first female to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1933, hired an official photographer named Albert Bresnik in 1932 and now his grandson is about to honor the great female aviator by carrying one of her scarves to the International Space Station (ISS).

"We are flying Amelia Earhart's favorite scarf that she unfortunately did not take with her on her final mission," said Randy Bresnik, mission specialist on the STS-129 Atlantis launch to the ISS, when he spoke with collectSPACE during a recent interview. "Fortunately, she also decided not to take her photographer with her otherwise I might not be here today."

In 1929, Earhart founded an international female aviator's organization called the Ninety-Nines, and the scarf has been borrowed from the organization's Museum of Women Pilots in Oklahoma City.

Although one of Earhart's scarves has visited space before (by Eileen Collins, the first US woman to command and pilot the space shuttle in 1995), this will be a very special connection to the pioneer through her close friend's grandson.

"The other thing [Randy Bresnik] told us is that he has the coordinates for Howland Island," said Carolyn Smith, chairman of the Ninety-Nines' Board of Trustees for the museum, referring to the the island that Earhart was trying to find before she mysteriously went missing. "He is going to try to take a picture of [the island] as they overfly it in the space shuttle."

"He said, 'If nothing else, some part of Amelia will have finished her around the world trip.' I thought that kind of neat," said Smith.

Source: Interview by collectSPACE.com