NASA Artemis 1 Packs Official Flight Kit To Moon: LEGO, Snoopy Make The List

NASA’s Artemis 1 is getting ready for its latest voyage to the moon, and in order to do so, it has a rather eccentric packing list of items it intends to take with it. 

The space agency recently uploaded a PDF with the entire list of keepsakes being launched into space—which includes 4 LEGO minifigs and 245 silver Snoopy pins. 

Other curiosities include a USB stick with over three million names of people who have signed up for NASA’s campaign to fly your name to the moon. Girl scout space badges, US flags, a Shaun the Sheep plushy, a 3D-printed version of the spaceship’s namesake, the goddess Artemis, and pieces from the original Apollo 11 flight will also be on the journey through the cosmos. 

The items—amounting to 120 pounds altogether—will be placed in the Orion capsule, which completes one orbit around the Moon before coming back to Earth.

The decision to send such an odd mish-mash of objects is that NASA intends to turn Artemis 1 into a time capsule of life on Earth that will get the chance to chart its own lunar course. 

NASA has a history of sending Earthly memorabilia into space and this time, its first return to the moon after half a century, is no exception. 

Artemis 1 is set to take off on the morning of August 29 and will be in orbit for 42 days, before a splashdown is scheduled for October 10. 

[via PC Mag and Extreme Tech, cover image via NASA]