8-year-old watches his plush toy rocket to the moon with Artemis II mission
A second-grader's plush toy design has rocketed to space alongside astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen on board the Artemis II moon mission launch.
Lucas Ye, 8, designed a white moon plush named "Rise," which wears an Earth cap with a brim highlighting the galaxy and rockets.
Lucas and his family were invited to witness the Wednesday evening launch of Artemis II at Kennedy Space Center, an experience Lucas described in a "Good Morning America" interview that aired Thursday, as "really cool."
Afterward, Lucas -- who's from Mountain View, California -- said he would love to watch an Artemis III mission in the future.
Lucas' design, inspired by the famous Earthrise photo taken during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968, was chosen out of 2,600 entries from over 50 countries as the official moon mascot of the NASA Artemis II mission in late March, according to Freelancer, the freelancing marketplace company that sponsored the mascot search.
"I feel very lucky. A little idea can turn out into a big thing," Lucas told "GMA."
In a video shared by Freelancer, Lucas broke down each element of his thoughtful design.
"It's representing Earthrise, taken by Apollo 8 [astronaut] William Anders. The cap is representing Earth and Earthrise. The visor is representing the two past and future moon missions. The constellation Orion represents Artemis II. The moon, which has a tiny footprint on the back, is representing the past Apollo mission," he said.
Koch, one of the Artemis II astronauts and a mission specialist, introduced Lucas' Rise plush in a ceremony at Kennedy Space Center on March 27.
"This little guy, Rise, really resonated with us, because the theme is actually the Earthrise photo taken on Apollo 8, which is inspirational to all of us," Koch said at the time. "It is a mission that sort of mirrors our own, and we've incorporated it into our mission patch and also into our ethos and values as a crew, so, welcome aboard, Rise."
Rise serves as the Artemis II astronauts' zero gravity indicator, letting the crew know that they have reached weightlessness when it floats upward during their journey.
Astronauts have carried and used a variety of fun zero gravity indicators in past missions, including a Snoopy toy, a "Baby Yoda" toy and more.
Lucas said he's a big fan of space exploration.
"Space is a big thing. It's very interesting and there's a lot of things that's being waited to be discovered," he said.
