Snoopy will be wearing NASA’s Orion Crew Survival System suit on the mission.
Snoopy, the iconic and endearing character from Peanuts, will travel to the Moon on NASA’s first Artemis mission early next year.
In the late Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts comic strips, Snoopy became the world’s first beagle to land on the lunar surface in 1969.
It’s going extraterrestrial again after more than 60 years, but this time it’ll be for real. As the Orion spacecraft sails around the Moon, a stuffed Snoopy will act as a zero-gravity indication. The unmanned Artemis I mission will test NASA’s deep space exploration systems.
Snoopy will be wearing NASA’s Orion Crew Survival System suit on the mission. The orange suit in miniature was created using the same materials that would be used by astronauts on future Artemis missions. Astronaut Snoopy “is no stranger to space,” NASA said in a tweet accompanied by a photo of the clothed Snoopy.
NASA has had a 50-year relationship with Snoopy. Since the Apollo period, it has acted as a mascot for spaceflight safety. The lunar module was nicknamed “Snoopy” during the Apollo 10 mission in 1969 because its role was to “snoop around” the Moon’s land to select a landing location for the Apollo 11 mission.
Schulz also made comic strips depicting Snoopy on the Moon about the same time. They contributed to the public’s enthusiasm for space missions.
“I’ll never forget watching the Apollo 10 flight with my father, who was ecstatic that his characters were a part of creating space exploration history,” said Craig Schulz, son of the cartoonist and producer of The Peanuts Movie, to Space.com.
“I’m sure he’d be overjoyed to see Snoopy and NASA team up once more to push the boundaries of human experience.”
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