Baby Yoda joins astronauts on historic SpaceX Crew-1 mission to ISS

Baby Yoda captured hearts as soon as he appeared in the Disney Plus series The Mandalorian. The breakout Star Wars star is now an honorary member of the Crew-1 mission thanks to astronauts who picked the character to be the “gravity indicator” on their historic SpaceX flight to the ISS. 

NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, along with Japanese Space Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi, were en route Sunday night to the International Space Station. The Baby Yoda toy could be seen floating in the spacecraft during the NASA livestream. 

The astronaut crew — as well as NASA and SpaceX — kept Baby Yoda’s presence a secret until they reached zero-gravity. “Baby Yoda says you guys can come back on board,” astronaut Glover told SpaceX mission control, saying they could turn the cameras back on inside the spacecraft.

In June, SpaceX and NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley chose a sparkly dinosaur nicknamed Tremor as their zero-gravity indicator. 

Of course, Baby Yoda floating in space got Star Wars fans excited. 

Tweeted one: “Baby Yoda goes to space! Spoiler twist ending for The Mandalorian season 2?” 

Tweeted another: “Why is it called the International Space Station? After Baby Yoda arrives it’ll be interplanetary.” 

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