The successful and historic first flight test of SpaceX's Crew Dragon carried an adorable cargo to the International Space Station on March 2.
Earthie, a blue and green plushie that has arms and legs, joined the dummy pilot, Ripley, in a journey toward low-orbit, and spent the past week observing astronauts do their work inside the orbiting outpost.
Unfortunately, for anyone who wants to take home the stuffed toy, its maker Celestial Buddies announced that Earthie had completely sold out.
Famous Toy
In a post on its website, the company revealed that it had no idea that the toy will be flying alongside Ripley, who is named after Sigourney Weaver's character in Alien, during the flight test. Little Earthie was a last minute addition to the mission to serve as a "super high tech zero-g indicator."
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared a video of the toy that can be seen floating gently inside the capsule in zero gravity on Twitter.
Earth floats gently in zero gravity pic.twitter.com/XUH3KeDPVe — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 2, 2019
Celestial Buddies shared that it has received overwhelming interest over the plushie. By the time Crew Dragon lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, its entire inventory had been completely wiped by the number of orders they receive from those who want to take home a memento of the historic event.
Even the astronauts aboard the ISS are completely enamored by the little Earth with its beady eyes and perennially open mouth.
.@AstroAnnimal welcomes humans aboard the first @SpaceX #CrewDragon to visit the station and introduces two special guests, Ripley and Little Earth, ushering in the era of @Commercial_Crew. #LaunchAmerica pic.twitter.com/QqzEEgDWzt — Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) March 3, 2019
Earth Plushies To Go Back On Sale In April
Celestial Buddies promised that it will have more Earth plushies on hand, but those who want one will have to wait until next month.
"We apologize for our current lack of Earths... we have never had a product on backorder before... but we have never had one of our products launched into space before, and we were taken totally by surprise," the company said.
Celestial Buddies also has other plushies that are equally adorable like the "Our Precious Planet," which is a larger and more detailed version of Earthie. Perhaps one should get the Mars plushie in anticipation for SpaceX's journey to the red planet in the future.
