As a new major motion picture about famed female pilot Amelia Earhart prepares to launch onto movie theater screens this weekend, a scarf she wore is being readied for its own liftoff, flying on the space shuttle with the astronaut grandson of her personal photographer. Randy Bresnik, whose grandfather Albert was recruited by Earhart in 1932 to be her only authorized photographer, is set totake the scarf on shuttle Atlantiswhen it departs with supplies and spare parts for the International Space Station (ISS) in November. "We are flying Amelia Earhart's favorite scarf that she unfortunately did not take with her on her final mission," revealed the STS-129 astronaut during an interview withcollectSPACE.com. "Fortunately, she also decided not to take her photographer with her otherwise I might not be here today." As the film "Amelia" starring Hilary Swank in the title role recounts, Earhart, who made the first transatlantic solo flight by a woman in 1933, and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean during an attempt in 1937 to become the first female to fly around the world. Scarves in space Earhart's scarf accompanying Bresnik on STS-129 is on loan from the Museum of Women Pilots in Oklahoma City, which displays the history of the Ninety-Nines, the international organization of female aviators founded in 1929 by 99 women pilots led by Earhart as president. "It has the Ninety-Nines' symbol, the intertwined nines in the center of it," described Carolyn Smith, chairman of the Ninety-Nines' Board of Trustees for the museum, of the red and white scarf. "We know that she wore the scarf," continued Smith. "We don't have any pictures of her wearing that exact scarf but it was given to us either by her mother or her sister when they gave us a number of other items of Amelia's. So we know that it was her scarf and she wore it, but we do not know exactly when." The Ninety-Nines have at least one other of Earhart's worn scarves and it too has been carried into space. The first American woman to pilot and command the space shuttle, Eileen Collins, flew that scarf on her first mission in 1995. Yet another scarf -- a brown, gold, and orange silk square belonging to Purdue University -- flew on the 1990 mission to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope. And a watch that Earhart wore is slated to launch to the space station with astronaut Shannon Walker in the spring of 2010.
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