Miss NASA Beauty Pageant

Written by

Did you know NASA had some sort of Miss NASA beauty pageant? I have found very little information on the pageant but below are all the pictures I could find of Miss NASA (click for high-resolution images, as always). It appears the pageant ran from at least 1968 through 1973. I wasn’t able to find any images of Miss NASA 1972. In fact I’m not really sure there was one. The pageants seem like they might be loosely tied to specific NASA research centers (The Glen Research Center and Lewis Research Center specifically). Does anybody have any more information on this?

Update: According to doctorlinda: Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, in an opening keynote speech at NASA’s March 8th “Women@NASA” conference, did acknowledge that NASA held a “Miss NASA beauty contest” in 1968.

Miss NASA 1968/69
Miss NASA 1968/1969 with RL-10 engine display. Rocket Operations Building, Rob Control Room.
Miss NASA 1970
Miss NASA 1970 along with the Lewis Research Center Band on the Agena trailor.

Miss NASA 1971
Miss NASA 1971 in the Apollo 8 at the Glen Research Center

Miss NASA 1973
Miss NASA 1973 (Merri C. Fahnenbruck) with the Apollo lunar rock display
All photos are public domain via Internet Archive