As four astronauts began their journey from Earth to the International Space Station on Sunday, an additional crew member made a surprise appearance: Baby Yoda.
A plush Baby Yoda toy floated around the cabin of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, named Resilience, after it left Earth’s atmosphere. The Child was visible during a few stretches of NASA’s livestream of the mission, bopping and spinning around like only a Baby Yoda could.
While it may just seem like a fun little nod to The Mandalorian, this little guy is actually performing an important job on this mission: He’s a gravity indicator. Once the spacecraft hits zero-G, the soft toy floats around. I’d say that Baby Yoda is absolutely nailing his job.
Baby Yoda is a passenger alongside Crew-1 astronauts Victor J. Glover, Michael S. Hopkins, and Shannon Walker of NASA, and Soichi Noguchi of Japan’s JAXA. Their journey to the ISS is expected to take about 27.5 hours, and after reaching the station they’ll stay for six months.
On SpaceX’s first manned spaceflight in May, the crew brought a plush dinosaur along for the ride. Baby Yoda is part of a long line of adorable zero-G indicators.
It’s unknown whether Baby Yoda will have a vital job once the crew reaches the ISS. At the very least he’ll help keep morale up.
