Snoopy the Astronaut? We caught him in several places and wondered about the significance.
The Silver Snoopy award is a special honor awarded to NASA employees and contractors for outstanding achievements related to human flight safety or mission success. The award certificate states that it is “In Appreciation” “For professionalism, dedication and outstanding support that greatly enhanced space flight safety and mission success.” The award depicts Snoopy, a character from the Peanuts comic strip created by Charles M. Schulz.
The origin may have been from the Apollo 10 Mission:
Due to the use of their names as call signs, the Peanuts characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy became semi-official mascots for the mission. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz also drew some special mission-related artwork for NASA.
A couple more after the jump. Very cool how pop culture embraced NASA during the golden age of space exploration.
