This article contains affiliate links; if you click such a link and make a purchase, we may earn a commission.
Meet Rise, the Plush That Went Around the MoonMIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO – Getty Images
“Hearst Magazines and AOL may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links.”
There are many heroes to come out of the Artemis II mission, but no one will take offense when I say that one is clearly the cutest: Rise, the smiling moon plushie the astronauts took with them on their trip around the moon.
Okay, maybe calling Rise a plushie is simplistic. It had an important function on the ship: It’s actually a “zero-gravity indicator,” which is a visual indication to the humans on board that the Artemis had left Earth’s gravity.
The design of this specific zero-gravity indicator—a smiling moon wearing a baseball cap that looks like Earth—was created by Lucas Ye, a second-grader in Mountain View California. It also served a secondary function: Inside was an SD card filled with names of more than 5 million people who wanted their monikers to take the trip around the moon.
When the Artemis II returned to Earth, Rise was supposed to stay on the ship—but it was too irresistible to leave behind. “I was supposed to leave Rise in Integrity….but that was not something I was going to do,” Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman wrote on X. “I stuffed that little guy in a dry bag we had in our survival kit and hooked the bag onto my pressure suit.”
“It’s hard not to love this little guy,” he said in a different X post. “I can’t let Rise out of my sight…currently tethered to my water bottle.”
I don’t really want to let Rise out of my sight, either! I want one of my very own. And, now, I finally can—thanks to the new Rise plush available on the NASA Exchange.
The only catch: Due to its manufacturing and popularity, it’s currently taking eight weeks for delivery. That’s longer than the entire Artemis II mission, but for space fans it’ll be worth the wait.
What’s more, the plushie isn’t the only Rise item available for sale. The NASA Exchange also has t-shirts, sweatshirts, keychains, stickers, magnets, and window clings, all with the smiling moon on it. All the money goes back to NASA, to “support morale, welfare, and recreation of NASA employees,” the site says.
For those who can’t wait the eight weeks, there are similar moon plushes out there that are available right now. In addition to full moons like Rise, there are also crescents that have a similar, adorable man-in-the-moon face. Celestial Buddies actually has a full range of planets to choose from—I’m partial to Saturn, since the rings are fashioned to look like the visor of a hat (and it has a smile, like Rise, as opposed to the surprised face). Aurora, too, has an Earth, a meteor, and a sun that can go with its moon, or you can get all three as a set.
Jellycat also recently came out with a whole collection of space-themed plushes. Sadly, there’s no full moon, but they do have a couple planets, comets, and black holes that have the same sort of vibe as Rise.
I can picture a whole solar system of plush, including planets, moons, and celestial bodies, sitting on the bed of a kid’s space-themed room. Or, I could just get a couple of these for my desk and smile when I look at them, just like Reid Wiseman.
You Might Also Like