Badge, Identification, Lockheed Martin Space Operations, Dennis Jenkins

This identification badge from Lockheed Martin’s Space Operations division was worn during work on the Space Shuttle orbiter. It belonged to Dennis Jenkins, a consulting aerospace engineer for the Space Shuttle Program, and author of Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System, a definitive book detailing the development, and first 100 flights of the space shuttles.Over the course of 135 Space Shuttle Program missions, thousands of workers were employed in the maintenance of the space shuttle orbiters. Companies, such as Lockheed Martin, were awarded contracts to construct components of the space shuttle orbiter, and identification badges recognized the participation of an individual employee and their company as a part of the larger Space Shuttle Program.Designed as a reusable spacecraft capable of flights to low Earth orbit, space shuttle orbiters carried astronauts to conduct scientific experiments, launch and repair satellites, and construct the International Space Station.This indentification badge was donated to the National Air and Space Museum by Dennis Jenkins in September 2011.