NASA's next trip around the moon will have a pint-size passenger with elementary-school credentials. When Artemis II launches as early as April 1, the four astronauts will be joined by "Rise," a small plush doll created by second-grader Lucas Ye of Mountain View, California. It will serve as the mission's zero-gravity indicator—"a small plush item that typically rides with a crew to visually indicate when they are in space," per a NASA news release.
NASA picked Rise from more than 2,600 entries submitted by kids in over 50 countries for its Moon Mascot contest. The list was narrowed down to 25 last summer and to five this month. Inspired by the famous "Earthrise" photo from Apollo 8, Rise will float freely to signal when the crew has reached microgravity. The tradition dates back to Yuri Gagarin's small doll on Vostok 1 and has since included everything from R2-D2 to dinosaurs to Snoopy, who was on the uncrewed Artemis mission in 2022, Popular Science reports.
"In a spacecraft filled with complex hardware to keep the crew alive in deep space, the indicator is a friendly and useful way to highlight the human element that is so critical to our exploration of the universe," Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman said in a statement while the contest was underway, per KTVU. Artemis II will be NASA's first crewed journey beyond Earth's orbit since Apollo, and Rise's planet-themed baseball cap could soon be headed for Earthbound merch shelves. If the launch doesn't happen as planned Wednesday night, there will be several other launch opportunities in the following days.
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