SpaceX Adds Adorable 'Zero-G Indicator' Inside the Crew Dragon

By Hanneke Weitering
published

(Image credit: Elon Musk/SpaceX/<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1101701552153219072" target="_blank">Twitter</a>)

It looks like Ripley (opens in new tab) won't be flying solo after all — the dummy passenger on SpaceX's Crew Dragon will have a "Celestial Buddy" along for the ride. 

"Super high tech zero-g indicator added just before launch," the SpaceX CEO tweeted Friday (March 1) about three hours before the planned liftoff of the Crew Dragon's first uncrewed test flight (opens in new tab) to the International Space Station. 

The mission, named Crew Dragon Demo-1, will lift off from NASA's historic launchpad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida today (March 2) at 2:49 a.m. EST (0749 GMT). You can watch the launch live here (opens in new tab). 

Related: SpaceX's Crew Dragon Demo-1 Test Flight in Pictures (opens in new tab)

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The last-minute addition to the Crew Dragon spacecraft isn't exactly a high-tech piece of equipment. It's a soft plush of planet Earth that's about the size of a basketball with an adorably astonished look on its face. Asked by one Twitter user whether the plush would contain any sensors, Musk replied (opens in new tab), "He is the sensor!"

Rather than record any actual measurements, the little Earth plush will start to float around once the Crew Dragon spacecraft begins to experience weightlessness (opens in new tab), or microgravity. (The term "zero gravity" is a bit of a misnomer, because the Crew Dragon, the International Space Station and anything orbiting the Earth is still subject to the planet's gravitational pull.)

Made by a company called Celestial Buddies (opens in new tab), this Earth plush is part of a whole collection of plush planets and moons that space buffs can snuggle with. You can buy the Earth plush on Amazon here (opens in new tab) for $33. 

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Hanneke Weitering
Hanneke Weitering
Editor

Hanneke Weitering is an editor at Space.com with 10 years of experience in science journalism. She has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.