KEY POINTS

  • The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully launched Sunday with four astronauts on board
  • The Crew-1 astronauts brought along a small Baby Yoda plushie to the ISS
  • Plush toys are used as indicators to show that the spacecraft has reached zero gravity

SpaceX recently launched its first-ever operational crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS). After the launch phase, however, the four-member crew introduced the Crew Dragon spacecraft's fifth passenger: Baby Yoda.

A few hours after launching to the ISS Sunday, Crew-1 astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi revealed that they brought along a plush toy version of "The Child" from the "Star Wars" spinoff series "The Mandalorian" as their zero-gravity indicator.

"And as you can see live, they have now revealed to us the zero-g indicator and it looks like a little baby Yoda!" SpaceX engineer Jessica Anderson said in NASA's live stream of the mission.

The stuffed animal is part of a long tradition of astronauts bringing along plush toys during flights to indicate when the launch phase is over. Once the toy floats after being tethered to the wall or some other anchor, the astronauts on board would know that they have now entered zero gravity or a state of weightlessness, TechCrunch reported.

The custom began on Russian spaceflights, dating back to the first-ever crewed mission. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin brought a small doll with him on his Vostok 1 mission to watch it float. Since then, the zero-g indicators have come in varying sizes, colors and appearances but with the same purpose, which is to signal the end of the launch phase.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk previously tweeted an image of a test launch featuring an Earth-shaped toy. "Super high tech zero-g indicator added just before launch!" he posted in March last year.

Earlier this year, astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley also brought a stuffed dinosaur with them on their historic flight in May, The Verge reported.

It has not been revealed why the Crew-1 astronauts chose the Baby Yoda plush toy as their zero-g indicator, but it might have something to do with their backup, NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren.

Lindgren is a self-professed "Star Wars" fan and had convinced his crewmates to dress up as Jedis during an earlier space station mission for a NASA promotional poster, Space.com reported. He also chose a little R2-D2 toy to serve as the zero-g indicator for his launch back in 2015 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

The four Crew-1 astronauts docked at the ISS Monday at around 11 p.m. EST. They are expected to spend about six months on board the space station.

Baby Yoda
The Child in "The Mandalorian." Lucasfilm
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