These colorful Young Astronaut Happy Meal toys were distributed by McDonald’s in 1986 to encourage children to seek out careers in science, space exploration, and other science-related fields. In 1984, the Reagan Administration created the Young Astronaut Council (YAC). This organization directed NASA, the Office of Private Sector Initiatives, and National Space Institute (with help from the National Science Teachers Association and other educational and aerospace groups) to promote a greater proficiency, curriculum, and interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) by using the popularity of space as the underlying theme. YAC targeted 1980s youth through popular culture mediums such as comics, Saturday morning cartoons, and toys. Marvel Productions entered a contract with YAC to create a cartoon and comic based around the YAC mission statement.

The cartoon and comic were set to be named Young Astronaut. Initially, the project faced delays due to disagreements between YAC, which sought scientific accuracy, and Marvel, which preferred a more imaginative space adventure approach. Unfortunately, the entire project was scrapped following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986. Although the project with Marvel was cancelled, YAC continued to promote the Young Astronaut brand with contracts with Pepsi, Coleco, and McDonald’s. In October of 1986, McDonald’s released a set of Young Astronauts Happy Meals. Each meal came with one of four space-themed toys, representing both YAC’s pursuit of scientific accuracy and Marvel’s preference for the imaginary. Two of the toys were based on real NASA spaceships: Apollo Command Module and Space Shuttle. The other two toys were fictional space vehicles named Argo Land Shuttle and Cirrus, a vertical take-off and landing aircraft.