Artemis II has ‘Rise’ on board, designed by this California 8-year-old

When Artemis II took off from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, it had one especially cute crew member aboard — “Rise,” a stuffed toy created by an 8-year-old boy from California that will indicate for astronauts when they have reached weightlessness.

Lucas Ye, from Mountain View, won an international competition to design the toy, which will start to float in the rocket when the crew is no longer under the influence of gravity.

Asked by a NASA representative on Wednesday how he felt knowing that his creation was headed to space, the second-grader said he was “really, really, really, really, really, really, really surprised and very happy.”

The tradition of bringing along a plush-toy “zero gravity indicator” dates back to Yuri Gagarin’s Vostok 1 mission in 1961 and has included a Snoopy on Artemis I and a Baby Yoda on SpaceX Crew-1.

Rise was selected from around 2,600 entries across more than 50 countries in a competition run by global crowdsourcing marketplace Freelancer. As a reward, Lucas was given the opportunity to travel to Wednesday’s launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, alongside his family.

His moon mascot toy was inspired by the “Earthrise” photo taken during the Apollo 8 mission and features a round, squishy moon wearing a baseball cap with planet Earth on the top and stars and galaxies on the brim.

Lucas works on his design for a “zero gravity indicator.” The toy, named Rise, is aboard the Artemis II.

(Freelancer / NASA)

The back of the cap has Neil Armstrong’s footprint from the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, while the constellation Orion on the rim represents the Artemis II mission, Lucas explained in a video shared by Freelancer after he was announced as a finalist.

“I like space, I like rockets, I like NASA, I like the solar system, I like studying about space,” he said with a big smile on his face.

The crew of Artemis II, including Cmdr. Reid Wiseman, was part of the judging panel that selected Lucas’ design from a shortlist of finalists. Other top-ranking entries came from students in Finland, Peru, Kansas and Canada.

NASA’s colossal Space Launch System rocket lifted off at 3:35 p.m. Pacific time Wednesday, marking the start of the 10-day Artemis II mission.

The crew, including Rise, is expected to reach the moon Monday morning. If all goes to plan, the ship will perform a flyby of the moon, temporarily losing signal with NASA on the far side. The crew capsule is set to splash down off San Diego around 5 p.m. Pacific time on April 10.

Times staff writer Noah Haggerty contributed to this report.