(SPACE) — The Child, the tiny, Force sensitive critter lovingly dubbed “Baby Yoda” by fans of The Mandalorian, is now in space, for real.
When Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched four NASA astronauts to the International Space Station on Sunday, they stashed a stowaway aboard their Crew Dragon spacecraft Resilience: a toy version of the character, which the crew used as their cheeky “zero G indicator” — a totem meant to show the travelers that the crew have left gravity’s grip.
With their trip to the International Space Station successful, the Resilience crew — NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, as well as JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, along with their little green friend — successfully docked with the ISS Monday night, and early this morning, they opened the hatch and joined the space station’s crew.
Footage posted on NASA’s Twitter feed shows the historic moment, with the little stuffed Baby Yoda floating in. The new residents will stay aboard for six months.
Let’s hope they keep him away from the controls — if the Disney+ hit taught the astronauts anything, they should know Baby Yoda is fond of pushing buttons, sometimes with dangerous results.
Not only is this the time SpaceX shuttled a full NASA crew to the ISS, the mission represents another historic first: Glover, Resilience’s pilot and second-in-command, will be the first African-American to stay aboard the station.
By Stephen IervolinoCopyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
