When most of us think about what we’d need if we went into space, we think about basics, like oxygen, spacesuits, rockets, and Kylo Ren’s high-waisted pants. But back in the 1970s, NASA engineers assumed women astronauts would also want to bring makeup into space — so they actually designed a makeup kit to send on missions.
On Tuesday, NASA’s History Office posted a series of tweets with information from 1978, the first year women were allowed into the shuttle corps. One of the tweets included a quote from astronaut Sally Ride, a physicist who became the first American woman to fly in space in 1983, as well as a picture of the personal hygiene kits for ladies.
“The engineers at NASA, in their infinite wisdom, decided that women astronauts would want makeup — so they designed a makeup kit … ” Ride’s quote reads. “You can just imagine the discussions amongst the predominantly male engineers about what should go in a makeup kit.”
However, as Quartz points out, NASA’s prototype kit — which included spots for mascara, eyeliner, blush, eye shadow, eye make-up remover, and lip gloss — was never actually sent into space. But let us not forget that these same engineers once asked Ride if 100 tampons would be enough for her weeklong journey into space.
