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Souvenirs
Advertising ➔ Promotional Button, Mars Observer Launch
Identifier:
2011.3.11Description:
A promotional button (badge or pin) with the words "Mars Observer Launch 1992" in white against red background on the top of the button. In left-center is an image of a rocket and next to that is the image of the Mars Observer spacecraft. At the bottom of the pin against an orange background the trademark "NASA" and the words "Titan III/TOS" are printed.Mars Observer was launched on September 25, 1992 from Kennedy Space Center aboard a Titan III rocket. The spacecraft was lost in the vicinity of Mars after (most probably) an explosion of the fuel and oxidizer elements on August 21, 1993 when the spacecraft began its maneuvering sequence for Martian orbital insertion.
This collection of space-related buttons provides the Museum with concrete examples of souvenirs used to commemorate many of the space program's milestones of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The collection was put together by the donor's husband who worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) during those years. These types of buttons would have been given out to members of JPL project teams. Often, promotional buttons were available to the general public as well, demonstrating the wide appeal of the space program. However, there observable differences in the buttons that were clearly designed for more of a mass market, versus buttons like this one that were designed to be souvenirs for JPL project team members.