posted 03-04-2019 12:30 AM               

'Little Earth' on SpaceX Crew Dragon gives boost to Celestial Buddies

The launch of SpaceX's first Crew Dragon space capsule to the International Space Station did more than just advance the day when astronauts will again fly into space from U.S. soil. It also resulted in a rush for plush blue and green toy orbs.

Jon Silbert was unaware of that connection, though, when on Friday (March 1) orders suddenly started pouring in for Planetary Pal Earth. The vice president of sales for Celestial Buddies (and the father of the product line's creator, Jessie Silbert), he had yet to see the tweet from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealing that Celestial Buddies' anthropomorphized planet Earth toy was flying on board the Crew Dragon for the spacecraft's uncrewed test flight to the orbiting laboratory.

posted 03-04-2019 01:15 PM               

Yes buddy, that's your Mother Earth. Isn't she beautiful?

posted 03-04-2019 08:20 PM               

Earth will learn a lot during his busy week on space station — today he kept me company while we checked our suit sizing to account for space growth (I am 2 inches taller than when I launched!), then we did some translation adaptation.

posted 03-05-2019 09:36 AM               

Earth's second day on the space station started early, but he was happy to learn that even in space, the day starts off with coffee. Then it was emergency mask donning practice with David Saint-Jacques — if there's an (unlikely) ammonia leak, we have just seconds to protect ourselves.

posted 03-06-2019 08:43 AM               

Busy second day for Earth on the space station - removing a constituent analyzer with David Saint-Jacques and some plumbing work with me. Preventative maintenance keeps us flying! He also learned how schedules keep us synced with the ground control centers. What should he do tomorrow?

posted 03-06-2019 08:44 AM               

Earth's third day started with getting the blood (plasma?) pumping! First the treadmill, then weights — he even got some deadlifts in with me. It is important to exercise every day, not just for our muscles but also to protect our bones from losing density in microgravity.

posted 03-06-2019 04:38 PM               

Earth's third day was busy! Briefings on how we manage trash and how to work the controls for the Canadian Space Agency's Canadarm2 (no, you cannot take it for a spin!), then a lesson on Soyuz descent with David Saint-Jacques (our lifeboat to get home in an evacuation, have to keep skills sharp)...

...then a favorite of the crew, group dinner! The candlelight dinner was also attended by Paxi, who is from ESA.

posted 03-06-2019 10:11 PM               

I visited the Soyuz today. Different spacecraft, same laws of physics!

posted 03-07-2019 11:38 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Ronpur:
I don't know if the crew is going to let it come home now!!

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