Artemis II Launches with Unique Crew Member

The Artemis II mission, which launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, carries a special passenger: 'Rise,' a stuffed toy designed by 8-year-old Lucas Ye from Mountain View, California. This plush toy will serve as a 'zero gravity indicator,' signaling to the astronauts when they have reached weightlessness.

The Story Behind 'Rise'

Lucas won an international competition hosted by Freelancer, a global crowdsourcing marketplace, to design the toy. Over 2,600 entries were submitted from more than 50 countries. The second-grader expressed his excitement, stating, “I was ‘really, really, really, really, really, really, really surprised and very happy’ knowing that his creation was headed to space.”

A Tradition of Zero Gravity Indicators

From Gagarin to Artemis

The tradition of using a plush toy as a zero gravity indicator dates back to Yuri Gagarin’s historic Vostok 1 mission in 1961. Previous missions have included Snoopy on Artemis I and Baby Yoda on SpaceX Crew-1. 'Rise' continues this charming tradition.

Inspired by Space History

Lucas’s design was inspired by the iconic ‘Earthrise’ photograph taken during the Apollo 8 mission. Rise features a round, squishy moon wearing a baseball cap. The cap is adorned with planet Earth on top and stars and galaxies on the brim.

Design Details

The back of the cap features Neil Armstrong’s footprint from the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, and the constellation Orion on the rim represents the Artemis II mission. Lucas shared in a video that he enjoys “space, rockets, NASA, the solar system, and studying about space.”

Artemis II Mission Details

The Artemis II crew, including Commander Reid Wiseman, served as part of the judging panel that selected Lucas’s design. The Space Launch System rocket lifted off at 3:35 p.m. Pacific time on Wednesday, beginning the 10-day mission. The crew, along with Rise, is expected to reach the moon on Monday morning.

The mission will include a flyby of the moon, during which communication with NASA will be temporarily lost. The crew capsule is scheduled to splash down off San Diego around 5 p.m. Pacific time on April 10.