NASA's Artemis II mission has carried four astronauts to the Moon, the first crewed lunar voyage since Apollo 17 in 1972. The crew includes Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen.
Alongside the astronauts will be a small white plush toy named "Rise." It joins a long line of stuffed companions that have travelled beyond Earth over the decades.
Meet ‘Rise’
As per the report of News18, ‘Rise’ was designed by eight-year-old Lucas Ye. The toy is round and white, wearing a hat decorated with images of Earth, galaxies, and rockets. It will serve as the mission's official Zero Gravity Indicator that floats freely the moment the crew escapes Earth's gravity.
What is a ‘Zero-G’ indicator?
News18 also cited that the tradition goes back to 1961. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin carried a small doll aboard Vostok 1. Since then, plush toys have been used on crewed missions to visually confirm the moment of weightlessness.
Other famous plush passengers
According to News18, several plush toys have made the journey to space over the years. Baby Yoda flew aboard SpaceX's first operational commercial crew mission in 2020. The astronauts chose the stuffed toy as their zero gravity indicator for the trip to the International Space Station, launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
Tremor the Dinosaur, a blue and pink sequined toy, performed the same role on the SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission, also in 2020.
Snoopy has been NASA's mascot since 1968, connected to the Manned Flight Awareness Program established in 1963. The beagle first flew to the Moon in May 1969 on Apollo 10, with astronauts Gene Cernan, John Young, and Thomas Stafford. Snoopy returned as the Zero-G Indicator on Artemis I.
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Shaun the Sheep also travelled on Artemis I, which is NASA's first uncrewed Orion spacecraft flight around the Moon using ESA's European Service Module. Shaun had begun astronaut training in 2020, visiting sites across Europe and the USA ahead of the mission.
