[imagesource: The Mandalorian]

Over the weekend, Elon Musk, henceforth forever known as ‘Space Karen’, was forced to stay home with “a moderate case of COVID-19” while SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), marking the first fully operational crewed mission for SpaceX.

This follows on from a test mission in May that carried NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken, both test pilots, to the space station for a brief stay.

Piloting the Crew-1 mission were NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, as well as the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Soichi Noguchi.

Oh, and Baby Yoda.

Mashable notes that what most might interpret as a nod to The Mandalorian, and the cutest thing in the known universe, actually performed a key role on the mission.

Baby Yoda is a gravity indicator. Once the spacecraft hits zero gravity, the soft toy floats around:

Views inside the Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft reveal a “Baby Yoda” toy joined the astronauts on the launch as their zero G indicator.https://t.co/baLJVLCH0T pic.twitter.com/wNBNcOCo1m

— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) November 16, 2020

One more for good measure:

Baby Yoda is heading to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. pic.twitter.com/6MFG1G0YT6

— Hanneke Weitering (@HannekeScience) November 16, 2020

The presence of Baby Yoda also led to some spectacular lines from the ground, including, via Science Alert:

“We’ve got Baby Yoda on board trying to take a seat right now,” the NASA communications specialist Leah Cheshier said in the agency’s livestream of the mission.

Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley took a sequined plush dinosaur along as their gravity indicator, but I think we can all agree that the Crew-1 team wins this one.

I’ll leave you with the trailer for The Mandalorian season two:

[source:mashable&sciencealert]