This toddler’s ride-on toy illustrates the ways that excitement about the Space Shuttle Program extended to the vibrant Vietnamese-American community in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This toy was procured from Taiwan in the early 1980s for sale in a Vietnamese-American Asian/international grocery store, Super Cao Nguyen market, run by the donor’s family in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma since 1979. This specific new-in-box example was discovered when the donor searched through the still-operational store’s stock for items to use in celebrating the store’s 40th anniversary in 2019.
The Luong family donated the toy to the National Air and Space Museum in 2021.
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.