After two and a half years of pauses, Boeing’s Starliner capsule successfully arrived at the International Space Station. It was a significant milestone for a company that attempted to catch up with SpaceX. So it’s suiting how Boeing decided it would commemorate a successful mission.
When the staff of the ISS unlocked the hatch to Starliner, they discovered a surprise inside the spacecraft. Next to Orbital Flight Test 2’s seated test dummy, a plush gadget depicting Jebediah Kerman, i.e., one of four original “Kerbonauts” featured in the Kerbal Space Program. As the KSP community better recognizes him, Jeb has served as the flight’s zero-G pointer. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin took a small doll with him on the first-ever human spaceflight. Ever since it has been believed that most space crews carry plush doll sets with them to make it simple to see before reaching a microgravity domain.
Boeing protected Jeb’s existence on OFT-2 private until the spacecraft landed with the ISS. A spokesperson for the company notified collectSPACE that Starliner’s engineering committee selected the mascot because of the science, engineering, technology, and math lessons KSP has to educate players. Jeb will spend the next few days with the crew of the ISS before they place him back in the spacecraft for its retrieval excursion to Earth.
