Stuffed animals are truly everywhere. Even in space. Astronauts pretty much always bring plushies with them on board of space missions. Of course, the question is why?
Going into space is a pretty serious thing. Stuffed animals on the other hand like fun and don’t take things too seriously.
But, it turns out, there’s room for some fun during serious stuff, too. In this case, stuffed animals have a very special job on board the space rockets.
Earlier this month three astronauts went into space onboard a Soyuz rocket. They went to the International Space Station to start their mission.
The travel to there is quite impressive. You get to travel over 1000 miles in under 10 minutes, Yahoo News reports. There’s also a video of the event.
In the second half of the video you get to see a couple of stuffed animals on board. They start to float around the astronauts
While cute and fun, there’s also a very special reason. You see, astronauts use stuffed animals as an indicator when they have entered space’s zero gravity.
Since stuffed animals are soft and light, they won’t break anything if they hit it. So, they make a great zero gravity indicator. Plus, they look quite cute and fun which brings a lighter touch to the whole ordeal.
In this case astronauts brought a plush mouse dressed up as an astronaut and the official 2018 FIFA World Cup mascot – Zabivaka. Both plushies looked quite interested to be there, that’s for sure. And they seemed to like to float around freely. Having fun and partying as always.
