This identification badge, for use by members of the United Space Alliance Proposal Team, was worn during work connected to the Space Shuttle orbiter. It belonged to Dennis Jenkins, a consulting aerospace engineer for the Space Shuttle Program, and author of Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System, a definitive book detailing the development, and first 100 flights of the space shuttles.
Over the course of 135 Space Shuttle Program missions, thousands of workers employed in the maintenance of the space shuttle orbiters. Badges, such as this one, identified employees of United Space Alliance, a company partnered with, and supporting, NASA and its programs, including operations at the International Space Station.
Designed as a reusable spacecraft capable of flights to low Earth orbit, space shuttle orbiters carried astronauts to conduct scientific experiments, launch and repair satellites, and construct the International Space Station.
This badge was donated to the National Air and Space Museum by Dennis Jenkins in September 2011.
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.