Robot 6
40 years ago, Apollo 10, and Snoopy, soared to the moon
- Posted on May 20, 2009 - 08:39 AM by Kevin Melrose
On his way to the launch pad, Apollo 10 commander Tom Stafford pats the nose of a stuffed Snoopy. (NASA photo)
Wired magazine's Underwire blog marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 10 moon landing with a look at the association between NASA and Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz.
Schulz sketched special artwork for the mission, which lasted from May 18 to 26, 1969, and sent Snoopy to the moon in a series of strips that appeared two months earlier. The previous year, NASA chose the beagle as an icon that would "emphasize mission success and act as a 'watchdog' for flight safety." And the Apollo 10 astronauts even nicknamed their command and lunar modules Snoopy and Charlie Brown.
The Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, Calif., is celebrating the anniversary, and the Peanuts connection, through July 20 with an exhibit called "To the Moon: Snoopy Soars With NASA."
- Share This!
One Comment
Peg
September 26, 2009 at 1:07 am
I just had to comment on this...it was the start of everything Snoopy and NASA....growing up in Galveston we were close to NASA...so I drew a picture of Snoopy on the moon and sent it to Neil Armstrong who was sweet enough to write me back and thank me for it...i wonder how many Snoopy drawings all the poor astronauts got during that time...it was a fun time to be a kid