The plush toys can serve an important role in the flight, as they help indicate when the spacecraft has reached zero gravity and astronauts are experiencing weightlessness. An Earth-shaped plush ...

The first astronauts preparing to fly to the moon ... to the International Space Station," said Wiseman, holding up a plush toy giraffe. "He still has a little bit of stitching on his neck so ...

The first astronauts to enter a polar orbit around Earth chose the obvious animal to serve as their zero-g indicator — a plush white *polar ... collectSPACE.com after the toy was revealed ...