#space flight

Rise, the zero gravity indicator plushie, selected from a elementary design contest. It was created by 8-year old Lucas Ye to look like the original earthrise photo, with the moon as the face and the "baseball cap" as the Earth rising above the moon and the brim the galaxy and stars. It holds an SD card with 5.6 million people's names so everyone can fly with the Artemis crew

Piece of fabric from the original Wright Brothers plane, used in the first powered-flight in 1903, lent by the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. When returned to the museum, it will sit beside the piece of canvas that flew with the Apollo 8 mission, the first human landing on the moon.

Photo of the moon taken from Ranger 7, the first US spacecraft to land on the moon, it took the first close-up photos that helped identify landing sites for the Apollo missions, mirroring Artemis's mission to identify safe-landing sites near the south pole for the next missions

Maple syrup and maple cookies brought by Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hanson, that he shared with his three American crew mates. They ate the cookies together when they were on the far side of the moon experiencing a "loss of signal" to earth.

Soil samples and various seeds. The Artemis I mission took tree seeds on it's flight around the moon, mirroring the experiment that Apollo 14 did. The seeds were planted and grew into "moon trees." Artemis II is taking ten soil samples from the moon trees so it can complete the space exploration cycle of going "back to space." The Canadian Space Agency is bring their own tree seeds, to create the next generation of "moon trees." They are also taking Zinnia and chile peppers seeds to experiment with growing other plants.

The Apollo 8 flight patch Jim Lovell wore on the Apollo 8 mission, lent by Jim Lovell's family after his passing in 2025. Apollo 8 was the first human flight around the moon and the mission that gave us the iconic "Earthrise" photo. Jim Lovell was also part of the Apollo 13 mission, which famously experienced an explosion mid-flight requiring them to cancel the moon landing and "slingshot" around the moon to save the astronauts, Jim never walked on the moon. Jim Lovell recorded a message to the astronauts before his passing, which NASA played for them during their wake-up on Day 6, the "lunar-fly-by-day", Jim addressed each astronaut by name and welcomed them to "his old neighborhood."

The Innu Nation flag. The astronauts traveled to a meteorite impact crater site in Kamestastin, Northern Labrador, Canada to improve their lunar geology training. The crater is a site with cultural significance to the Innu Nation. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen spent time with the community and the flag was given as a gift from the Innu Nation to fly alongside with Jeremy.

Two historic American flags: 1. The flag that was supposed to go with the Apollo 18 mission, which never got to fly because the mission was canceled when NASA was defended in the 1970s. NASA kept it in storage and included it on this mission so the flag could be retired after waiting 50 years to go to the moon. 2. The "Legacy Flag," which was brought on the first shuttle flight STS-1 in 1981, and then left on the International Space Station (ISS) after the last space shuttle flight STS-135 in 2011, and was successfully retrieved again on the flight that re-started the US shuttle program NASA-SpaceX DE2 flight in 2020, and is now on the first flight back into deep space.

Other things listed in the flight kit:

"Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo badge" and "Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo leather back number", from the annual Houston rodeo "Space City," home to the Johnson Space Center in Texas.

Shavings from taken from the construction of the SLS (Space Launch System) that launched the rocket into space, Artemis flag signed by Airbus employees, Postcard signed by Orion employees

Artemis-branded things that will have "flown in space": rubber stamp, embossing discs, embroidered ribbons, holographic seals, pins, patches

I had to make some ARTemis! I know this isn't my usual fanart, but I'm a huge space nerd, and I've been watching the Artemis II mission all week, and I felt compelled to make some art for their last day in space.

The Artemis II crew are such incredible, kind, smart people, and they, along with everyone at NASA and CSA on the ground, reignited the spark for exploration of the cosmos and appreciation of our (comparatively) tiny, precious, "spaceship Earth" in so many people. Which I think is beautiful, and incredible, and EXACTLY what humanity needed, right now.

Watching flight of Astronaut Shepard on television.

Collection JFK-WHP: White House PhotographsSeries: Cecil Stoughton's White House Photographs 

Artemis II Crew

1973 Soviet poster celebrating Cosmonautics Day on 12 April, featuring Soviet pilot and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who was the first man in space on 12 April 1961 when he launched into orbit on Vostok 1. Artwork by V. Viktorov.