Snoopy Will Be Flying to the Moon Aboard NASA’s Artemis I Mission: NASA is sending the iconic and adorable character Snoopy from Peanuts to the Moon aboard its first Artemis mission early next year. Snoopy became the world’s first beagle to land on the lunar surface in 1969 in the Peanuts comic strips by the late Charles M. Schulz.
More than 60 years later, it’s getting supernatural again – only this time it will be real. A stuffed Snoopy will serve as a zero gravity indicator on the Orion spacecraft as it flies around the Moon. Artemis I is an unmanned mission to test NASA’s deep space exploration systems.
Aboard the mission, Snoopy will be dressed in NASA’s Orion Crew Survival System suit. The miniature version of the orange suit is made from the same materials that will be worn by astronauts on future Artemis missions. NASA shared a photo of Snoopy dressed on Twitter, saying that astronaut Snoopy is “no stranger to space”.
#AstronautSnoopy is no stranger to space. The Peanuts character skimmed the lunar surface as the name of the Apollo 10 lunar module & even caught a ride on the space shuttle.
Now Snoopy is going to the Moon as a zero gravity indicator aboard #Artemis I: https://t.co/wUHfUgYWYm pic.twitter.com/t8DFQq6gHi
— NASA (@NASA) November 12, 2021
Snoopy has a 50-year association with NASA. It has been the mascot for the safety of spacecraft since the Apollo era. During the Apollo 10 mission in 1969, the lunar module was nicknamed “Snoopy” because its job was to “look around” the Moon’s surface to find the landing site for the Apollo 11 mission.
Around the same time, Schultz also created comic strips that depicted Snoopy on the moon. He helped get the public excited for space missions.
“I’ll never forget watching the Apollo 10 mission with my dad,” Craig Schulz, the cartoonist’s son and producer of The Peanuts Movie, told SPACE.com, who is so proud to see his characters take part in making space exploration history.”
“I know he will be delighted to see Snoopy and NASA teaming up again to push the boundaries of the human experience.”
According to NASA, zero gravity indicators provide a visual indicator of when a spacecraft has reached the weightlessness of micro-gravity.
As part of the Artemis program, NASA is working to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon. The Artemis mission is the stepping stone to a future mission to Mars. The first Artemis mission will pave the way for establishing a long-term presence on the Moon.
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