Items that belonged to Amelia Earhart are out of this world — literally.
One of Earhart’s scarves was carried into space by astronaut Randy Bresnik aboard the shuttle Atlantis, which took off Nov. 16. Bresnik is the grandson of Earhart’s 
personal photographer, Albert Bresnik, who was hired in 1932 to document her around-the-world flight. In one photo the elder Bresnik took of Earhart, she’s wearing the scarf over a V-neck sweater, as her hand rests on the horizontal stablizer of her Electra.
The scarf was a favorite of Earhart’s, but she declined to take it with her on her last flight.
The scarf is on loan from the Museum of Women Pilots in Oklahoma City, which features the history of the Ninety-Nines, the international organization of female aviators founded in 1929 by 99 women pilots. Earhart was the group’s first president.
Once Bresnik returns the scarf, it will be part of a new display at the museum dedicated to his grandfather’s photographs.
Meanwhile, a watch that belonged to Earhart and has been in the possession of the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum in Atchison, Kan., is on loan to astronaut Shannon Walker, who will be on the International Space Station for six months starting in the spring of 2010.
For more information: MuseumOfWomenPilots.com, AmeliaEarhartMuseum.org, NASA.gov.