For the first entirely private mission to the International Space Station, the astronauts of the AX-1 mission will have an unexpected passenger with them: Caramel, the plush puppy from the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation.
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“We are honored that our sweet, cuddly and adventurous mascot, Caramel, has joined the crew of Ax-1 who will carry out the historic first private mission to the ISS today,” Renée Vézina, President, said on Friday. of The Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation.
The astronauts of the AX-1 mission will have the mascot as weightlessness indicator. Indeed, Caramel, like other astronaut stuffed animals before him, will allow the occupants of the space shuttle to assess the moment when the spacecraft escapes the effect of weightlessness.
“As soon as the stuffed animal begins to float around the spacecraft, the crew of the historic Ax-1 mission will know by visual cue that it has entered the microgravity environment of space,” could we learn in the statement of the foundation.
The Ax-1 crew chose Caramel as an indicator in part because of the mission’s connection to the Montreal Children’s Hospital. The Ax-1 crew includes Canadian Mission Specialist Mark Pathy, whose research on the space station will include several projects on chronic pain and sleep disorders during space travel, which are likely to have an impact in the real world.
“A huge thank you to the team, and in particular to Montrealer Mark Pathy, member of the board of directors of The Foundation, for having chosen Caramel for a mission of this magnitude,” said Ms. Vézina. Caramel has been the Children’s Foundation mascot since 2000. She brings smiles to countless seriously ill children.
Mark Pathy will also have a live chat from space with children in the hospital.
Caramel the plush pup thus joins a prestigious group of weightlessness indicators, including Snoopy, Buzz Lightyear, Baby Yoda, a penguin, a dinosaur and Olaf from Frozen.
The company Axiom Space organized the trip, buying the means of transport from SpaceX, and paying NASA for the use of its station.