Rise, the tiny fifth astronaut of Artemis II and his mission aboard as ZGI

Astronauts are usually aviators and scientists with great professionalism and excellent training.

The beautiful images of the Moon captured by Artemis II and the cameras used
The live broadcast of the launch of NASA's Artemis II mission to the Moon

A little-known fact is that these highly skilled professionals always carry a small stuffed toy on their missions. Sometimes these toys are given to them by their children, and other times they are the result of a very thorough search for the ideal candidate to perform a very specific function during the launch of spacecraft.

A few days ago, in the article I published about the launch of the Artemis II mission, I pointed out here that this flight carries a crew of four: NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen. I must say that I unforgivably omitted an important crew member: little Rise.

Rise was born after a contest launched by NASA to choose a ZGI for the Artemis II mission. A ZGI is a zero gravity indicator. NASA explains the function of these toys as follows: "Zero gravity indicators are small, plush items carried aboard spacecraft to provide a visual indication of when the spacecraft and its crew reach space." On the Artemis I mission, which carried no human crew, the only astronaut on board was a small Snoopy plush toy. As you may recall, that was also the name chosen by NASA for the Lunar Module LM-4 of the Apollo 10 mission, launched on May 18, 1969. LM-4 Snoopy has been lost in space for 57 years, as you could already read here in 2024.

The competition to select a ZGI for Artemis II lasted approximately three months and received thousands of proposals from more than 50 countries. On August 22, 2025, NASA announced 25 finalists from 10 countries: the United States, Canada, Colombia, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Peru, Singapore, and Wales.

The winning entry was submitted by Lucas Ye, a boy from Mountain View, California, who was inspired by a famous photograph titled "Earthrise," taken by NASA astronaut Bill Anders on the Apollo 8 mission on December 24, 1968, Christmas Eve, in which the photographer flew alongside Frank Borman and Jim Lovell. It is an inspiring image that was listed in 2003 by Life magazine as one of the 100 photographs that changed the world.

The final version of Rise was developed by the Thermal Blanket Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, located in Greenbelt, Maryland. This laboratory manufactures the thermal blankets that protect spacecraft and artificial satellites from threats such as solar radiation, extreme cold, and even micrometeoroid impacts.Rise is made with fire-resistant materials, specially designed to not release gases or generate unpleasant odors (all materials carried aboard a crewed spacecraft undergo an olfactory test, since in space you can't open a window to dissipate bad smells).

In addition, Rise incorporates an SD memory card containing 5,647,889 names, submitted by people from different countries during an Artemis II program campaign. Above, we see Rise with its four travel companions, in a photo taken on March 27 at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, alongside three NASA Northrop T-38 Talon aircraft. You can see a video published a week ago by NASA showing how Rise was created:

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Photos: NASA.