Snoopy participated in the Artemis lunar mission l
Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty Images
After a transcendental journey through space, snoopythe famous character of comic strips and animated series, returned to earth and NASA released a series of photos to celebrate the feat.
The famous white dog, at least one stuffed version, was part of the Artemis I mission, in which the Orion capsule orbited near Luna for several days at the end of December 2022 and recently returned to our planet.
“Snoopy was secured inside Orion during the Artemis I mission, a round trip beyond the Moon to prepare for crewed missions to the Moon,” NASA reported in a post on its website.
Some photos published by NASA taken show how the doll is carefully handled before putting it back in its transport bag.
The images This is the first time the doll has been seen up close. since it was launched on the Artemis I mission on NASA’s first Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on November 16, 2022.
During the 25.5-day flight, which covered more than 2.3 million kilometers around the Moon, Snoopy was only seen from afar, floating at the end of his leash. at the bottom of the Orion crew cabin, as seen from a camera mounted on the aft wall.
The new photos show that Snoopy returned in good condition from the tripe spatial and with the broad smile that characterizes him.
The stuffed animal flew to the moon and came back featuring a miniature version of the Orion Crew Survival System pressure suit (OCCS) from NASA, made from some of the same materials used to produce the actual garments.
After landing off the coast of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula on December 11, Snoopy remained inside the Orion while it was being transported. by truck from the San Diego Naval Base in California to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The craft was delivered to NASA’s Multiple Payload Processing Facility on December 30.
Snoopy’s mission in space
The stuffed toy, made to measure, served as the mission’s “zero gravity indicator”a tradition borrowed from the Russian space program that uses toys to signal when the spacecraft has entered the microgravity environment of space.
In the lobby of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Review Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a Snoopy, the zero gravity indicator that flew aboard Orion during the Artemis I mission,” NASA explained when referring to the photograph of Snoopy.
According to the specialized site Collect Space, the snoopy history with nasa It dates back to the Apollo program, when illustrator Charles Schulz accepted the character to symbolize NASA’s safety culture and mission success. The Apollo 10 lunar module was named “Snoopy” and the “Silver Snoopy” is one of the highest honors NASA astronauts bestow on employees and contractors for their support in bringing them home safely.
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