Eight-year-old space lover’s plushie shoots for moon onboard NASA rocket
SMRTR summary
A smiley-faced plush toy named Rise is floating through space aboard Artemis II, becoming the mission's zero-gravity indicator after eight-year-old Lucas Ye from Mountain View beat over 2,600 entrants in a global competition. The space-obsessed second-grader designed the toy complete with a star-spangled baseball cap and Earth-inspired crown, paying homage to the iconic 1968 Earthrise photograph.
When asked how he felt about his creation joining the first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years, Lucas stretched out his words: "Really, really, really, really, really, really, really surprised and very happy."
His toy follows a quirky space tradition dating back to Yuri Gagarin's doll in 1961, serving the practical purpose of showing astronauts when they've achieved weightlessness. Rise will travel over 250,000 miles during the 10-day journey that also marks historic firsts, as Christina Koch becomes the first woman and Victor Glover the first person of color to fly between Earth's orbit and the moon.
The mission's success will inform Artemis IV, scheduled to return humans to the lunar surface in 2028.
SMRTR provides this summary for quick context. The original article belongs to The Guardian.
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