The eighth crew of the SpaceX mission, which launched on board the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft on the night of March 4 and arrived on the ISS on March 5, consisted of three NASA astronauts, a Roscosmos cosmonaut and a plush English springer spaniel — an exact replica of the commander’s pet dog. In the video from aboard the capsule, Matthew Dominic can be seen letting go of the toy, and it hovers, showing that they are already in the microgravity of outer space.
Weightlessness indicator
The SpaceX Crew-8 crew included Commander Matthew Dominick, pilot Michael Barratt and mission specialists Jeanette Epps and Alexander Grebenkin. During the flight from the Mission Control Center in Hawthorne, California, they were asked if they were observing space tradition by bringing a small toy on board to visually demonstrate the “free—floating state of objects” in low-Earth orbit.
The mission members confirmed that they have a so-called “zero gravity indicator”, and it is already in operation. It turned out to be a small stuffed spaniel dog with fluffy brown ears and spots on its paws. He continues the five-year-old custom of SpaseX: five years and one day ago, the company launched an unmanned mission for the first time, from which a plush planet Earth flew in a capsule for the future crew and cargo. This tradition was adopted by SpaseX from the Russian (and Soviet) space program, which, from the very first human spaceflight, launched toys into orbit as “weightlessness indicators” and symbols important to the team. They were often dolls of cosmonauts’ children.
The commander of Crew-8 also said that their indicator was chosen by his daughters, who miss their dad, and they gave him a small version of their pet, the English Springer spaniel.
“The value of our weightlessness indicator is in who chose it. Many parents around the world have jobs that take them away from their families for a long time to serve society, the country and the world,” said Matthew Dominick.
“The choice was given to my daughters to show the sacrifice that children around the world make while their parents serve away from home.”
Matthew Dominic
astronaut
Cheburashka, Lego and the Olympic bear
On Russian “Unions”, the toy usually takes off during the separation of the second stage, and on Crew Dragon — the first. The indicator shows that the engines have started successfully, a new acceleration has begun and microgravity has arisen.
Symbols of Olympiads, championships, other holidays and events relevant at that time visited space with Russian crews. Including the wolf Zabivaka, the polar bear from the 2014 Games and Cheburashka. The commander of the Soyuz MS-15, Oleg Skripochka, took a toy unicorn with him at the request of his daughter, and Sergei Krikalev took his child’s favorite teddy bear, which he returned to the owner six months later after returning from a flight. Olaf the snowman, the bird from Angry Birds and many others also flew.
NASA astronauts, who also wanted to follow the custom, took Lego figures, Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story into space — a total of 14 items during SpaceX flights, hoping that this would also spur children’s interest in space. In the seventh crew, the family of Commander Andreas Mogensen handed the three-toed sloth Sasha to the team, hinting at the “speed in the life of the captain of their mission.”
The crew of Crew-8 and the teddy dog successfully boarded the ISS — for a week the number of people on the station increased to 11 people, until four of the Crew-7 team went to Earth.
Dominic, Barratt, Epps and Grebenkin are scheduled to work on board the station for six months: they are to conduct more than 200 scientific experiments, including on the effect of microgravity on the human body. The results of the research will be used to prepare for future human flights to the moon.
The author of the text:Eva Beletskaya
According to the materials Space.com .
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