This temporary pass allowed the wearer to enter the NASA firing room at the Kennedy Space Center for the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, STS-86, in September 1997. The firing room at the Kennedy Space Center served as the nerve center for controllers on the launch day of these space shuttles. 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.
The badge 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.
Jenkins donated the pass was to the National Air and Space Museum in September 2011.
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.