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When SpaceX’s first tourist crew flew into Earth orbit, they took a fluffy stowaway with them.
The Inspiration4 mission took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Wednesday. SpaceX’s live broadcast from a camera inside the spacecraft showed four amateurs squeezed into their seats by the force of the rocket: billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman, geoscientist and science communicator Dr. Sian Proctor, medical assistant Hayley Arceneaux and engineer Chris Sembroski.
They would soon become the first people to reach Earth orbit without a single professional astronaut on board.
As the Crew Dragon spacecraft settled in on its way around Earth, a stuffed doll began to float around the cabin. It was a golden retriever. In later footage, he wore a spacesuit, quite similar to the SpaceX pressure suits that human passengers wore.
Turns out this toy is based on two real dogs – Puggle and Huckleberry – who work for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The golden retriever and the goldendoodle help comfort children undergoing cancer treatment. They came to the Assistance Dog School Hospital in 2019.
Puggle and Huckleberry “sit with the kids when they’re scared, they go up to bed with the kids,” Arceneaux said on a video released by the Crew Dragon. “They’ll even go through the MRI machine or the CT machine before the kids, to show them it’s not that scary. And so we wanted to bring one of these really cute dogs into space.”
Today, Arceneaux works in Saint-Jude as an assistant doctor. But she first became familiar with the hospital when she was a child, when she received treatment for bone cancer. As a result, she has a rod in her leg and is now the first person in space with a prosthesis.
“Because of my cancer, knowing that I am sitting here today and that I can represent all these other children, it is the greatest honor of my life,” Arceneaux said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The plush puppy is on sale to raise money for St. Jude
Isaacman aims to raise $ 200 million for pediatric cancer research in St. Jude by requesting donations online and by auctioning items related to the theft. This is on top of the $ 100 million he has already given himself.
As of Friday evening, the Inspiration4 mission had raised nearly $ 52 million.
The machine washable polyester puppy named Jude is available for purchase from the St. Jude website for $ 24, with all proceeds going to the hospital. The assistance dog plush was sold out on Friday night.
It is a tradition that astronauts bring a cute plush toy into space with them as a “weightless indicator”. When it starts to float, they know they are in orbit. It is also the tradition that these toys sell after making their orbital appearances. Previous SpaceX astronaut missions have carried a glittering dinosaur, a Baby Yoda doll, and a penguin named Guin Guin.
Stuffed dog Jude and his human teammates are expected to return to Earth on Saturday, splashing off the coast of Florida at 7:06 p.m. ET.
Read the original article on Business Insider
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