Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman has admitted he broke NASA protocol to make sure one very important member of the crew didn’t get left behind.
After a ‘bullseye’ landing in the Pacific Ocean on Friday, Mr Wiseman sneakily nabbed the crew’s mascot, Rise, from the Orion capsule, which the crew nicknamed Integrity.
According to NASA’s plan, the stuffed toy should have remained aboard the Integrity spacecraft to be retrieved at a later date.
However, writing on social media, Mr Wiseman explained: ‘I was supposed to leave Rise in Integrity… but that was not something I was going to do.’
‘I stuffed that little guy in a dry bag we had in our survival kit and hooked the bag onto my pressure suit.’
Having been lifted by helicopter to the waiting USS John P. Murtha, Mr Wiseman could be seen happily clutching the toy that accompanied the crew around the moon and back.
Rise now remains with Mr Wiseman and his two daughters, Ellie and Katey.
Mr Wiseman added: ‘It’s hard not to love this little guy. I can’t let Rise out of my sight…currently tethered to my water bottle.’
Rise has been a constant companion for the crew – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen – from conferences and press tours before the trip to their 10 mission around the moon.
The mascot’s design – a cartoonish moon wearing a cap emblazoned with stars – was created by Lucas Ye, a year three student from California.
Ye’s design was selected from over 2,600 entries sent in from over 50 countries.
However, the adorable mascot was there for more than just emotional support.
Rise is what NASA calls a zero–gravity indicator – small, soft toys that start to float when the spacecraft has left Earth’s pull.
Inside, Rise carries an SD card storing the names of more than five million people who wanted their names to be sent around the moon.
While the world watched NASA’s Artemis II mission in amazement, space fans often saw Rise drifting around the cabin of the Orion crew capsule or being held by the crew during calls back to Earth.
And, after 10 days travelling through space together, it seems Mr Wiseman simply couldn’t face leaving the zero–gravity indicator behind.
After splashing down off the coast of California at 8.07 pm ET, Mr Wiseman securely fastened Rise to his suit before being hoisted from a raft into a waiting US Navy helicopter.
He was seen triumphantly clutching the stuffed toy as the crew waited aboard the USS John P. Murtha and on stage at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Centre, where they celebrated the end of their mission on Saturday.
Rise next appeared in a photo posted of Mr Wiseman in a car with his two daughters, simply captioned: ‘Mission complete’.
On social media, space enthusiasts have lauded Mr Wiseman’s last–minute decision, calling Rise the ‘fifth member’ of the Artemis II crew.
One commenter wrote: ‘Thank you for making sure Rise wasn’t forgotten. No Plushy Left Behind!’
‘This little guy is now a national treasure,’ another chimed in.
While one space fan jokingly asked: ‘Have you negotiated joint custody with the rest of the crew yet?’
Meanwhile, eagle–eyed space lovers have spotted a touching hidden detail in the mascot’s design.
In a NASA photo of Ye holding a Rise prototype, fans spotted that the cuddly toy was emblazoned with the name ‘Carroll’.
Carroll is the name of Mr Wiseman’s wife, who passed away from cancer in 2020.
During their lunar flyby, the crew suggested naming a newly discovered crater after Carroll as a memorial to Mr Wiseman’s late wife.
Jeremy Hansen said to mission control: ‘A number of years ago, we started this journey in our close–knit astronaut family and we lost a loved one. Her name was Carroll: the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie.’
Rise is not the first toy to make the long journey into space.
In 1961, the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin carried a small doll with him on the first–ever spaceflight, while cosmonauts above the early Soyuz missions took a small Paddington Bear.
In 2022, the Artemis I mission also carried a Snoopy and Sean the Sheep plush on its own journey around the moon.
