A sari for Mars: Outfit worn by Indian 'rocket woman' at US museum

Once the sari and the matching blue blouse reached the museum, textiles conservator Beth Knight watched YouTube videos to learn how to drape it on the mannequin. Shindell says the sari has "a family resemblance" to a lot of clothing in their collection that was worn during an important mission at ground control, such as Gene Kranz's vest the Nasa Flight Control Chief wore in 1970 to steer Apollo 13's crew back to safety. Smithsonian’s National Air and Space MuseumThe sari is displayed alongside toys, games, movie posters and the iconic blue t-shirt worn by the first American woman in spaceSmithsonian, which is visited by tens of thousands of people every week, also has several objects from India in their collections - but most are from the Air Force and airline companies. It also has a commemorative silver tray Isro presented to the science fiction author Arthur C Clarke in 2007 on his 90th birthday. "But Nandini's sari is the first object I have collected from India for our Interplanetary science collection and it's our very first sari," Shindell says.The garment is on display in the Air and Space Museum's "Futures in Space" gallery, alongside different objects, including toys, games and movie posters. It's placed right next to the iconic blue t-shirt worn by Sally Ride on the 1983 Shuttle mission when she became the first American woman in space.The idea behind this display, Shindell says, "is to engage visitors to recent things that happened in space and what could happen next".