It's just anecdotal but when I asked why our Xerox workstations at JSC had dancing Snoopy line art, I was told Charles Schulz himself was a big fan of the space program and he'd drawn art for the program and extended its use to them in perpetuity.
I have been on a team that won a silver Snoopy but was a subcontractor and didn't get one myself; just the Boeing employees I worked with did. Every once in a while I Google them on the off chance I could get one as a piece of memoribilia, but they are thousands of dollars.
It's an interesting tidbit, but doesn't answer the primary question I had: For all the pomp and ceremony government agencies usually go for, why Snoopy of all possible medal shapes?
After the completion of the Mercury and Gemini projects, NASA wanted a way to promote greater awareness among its employees and contractors of the impact they had on flight safety, the flight crews and their missions.[4] NASA wanted to use a symbol for spaceflight that would be well known and accepted by the public, similar to the recognition received by the United States Forest Service's Smokey Bear.
The idea for the Silver Snoopy award came from Al Chop, who was director of the public affairs office for the Manned Spacecraft Center (now called the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center). He wanted to create an award featuring Snoopy as an astronaut to be given by astronauts in recognition of outstanding contributions by employees.[5]
Charles M. Schulz, who was an avid supporter of the U.S. space program, welcomed the idea of using Snoopy for the award. Schulz and United Feature Syndicate (the distributor of the Peanuts comic strip) agreed to let NASA use "Snoopy the Astronaut" at no cost.[4] Schulz himself drew the image the award pin was based on. He also drew promotional art for posters to promote the award program.[5]
Trivia: The fabric cap worn by NASA astronauts as part of the Extravehicular Mobility Unit is known as a "Snoopy cap", a reference to how the white crown and brown earflaps of the cap resemble Snoopy's fur and ears.
Snoopy was popular among the astronauts, and Schultz liked NASA. All the Apollo 10 modules had Snoopy related call signs, chosen by the astronauts.
“ The command module was given the call sign "Charlie Brown" and the lunar module the call sign "Snoopy". These were taken from the characters in the comic strip, Peanuts, Charlie Brown, and Snoopy.These names were chosen by the astronauts with the approval of Charles Schulz, the strip's creator,who was uncertain it was a good idea, since Charlie Brown was always a failure. The choice of names was deemed undignified by some at NASA…”
A reporter for the Houston Chronicle claimed to have Chop's Snoopy fandom straight from the source . . .
Considering Charles Schulz's retirement, this is an ideal time to get Al Chop to tell how he drafted Snoopy for a special NASA assignment.
...
Chop said he was, at the time, director of the public affairs office for the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. And, like an estimated 355 million other people in 75 countries, he was a fan and avid reader of Schulz's Peanuts comic strip. He especially liked the dog who often assumed a pilot's role atop the doghouse.
"Snoopy was a flier," Chop said. "No reason he couldn't become an astronaut, too."
> The award is a sterling silver Snoopy lapel pin that has flown in space
I find it interesting that "has flown in space" is presented here almost like a property of the material and not as history of the individual pins.
Are the pins passed on from past recipients to new ones, so the time in space was during the previous wearer's mission? Or are there ISS missions that just carry a box of not yet awarded pins with them but will not do anything with the box, just so it gains its flown-in-space-ness?
The pins are sent aboard missions to the ISS in a package and then get sent back on the next return. Each pin comes with a certificate signed by an astronaut that specifies which mission it flew up on.
seems like in the apollo era crew carried a few in their PPK (personal preference kit), and in the later shuttle era they regularly carried 500-1000 pins per mission.
My stepfather (passed) earned a Silver Snoopy, one of his proudest moments. My stepbrother has the certificate, but not the lapel pin. The possibility of getting a replacement is awesome, so thanks for posting this!
Related, Omega has a mechanical snoopy watch[1] which is coveted and rare with earth that circles the moon on the back of the case with snoopy that animates.
I know it’s going to come off as a swiss mechanical watch snob, but I am disappointed that Omega allowed swatch to clone their work of art timepieces in what are essentially plastic quartz frauds. It’s the opposite of what a high end luxury brand does. You think we’ve ever see Rolex make $500 plastic quartz watches? I think not.
The back of them really are stunning, sadly the listing doesn't seem to shown that it also has snoopy in a rocket which sweeps round as well as the earth rotating - they aren't limited edition either so not impossible to obtain! (Though... Not cheap either)
It's just anecdotal but when I asked why our Xerox workstations at JSC had dancing Snoopy line art, I was told Charles Schulz himself was a big fan of the space program and he'd drawn art for the program and extended its use to them in perpetuity.
I have been on a team that won a silver Snoopy but was a subcontractor and didn't get one myself; just the Boeing employees I worked with did. Every once in a while I Google them on the off chance I could get one as a piece of memoribilia, but they are thousands of dollars.
It's an interesting tidbit, but doesn't answer the primary question I had: For all the pomp and ceremony government agencies usually go for, why Snoopy of all possible medal shapes?
Trivia: The fabric cap worn by NASA astronauts as part of the Extravehicular Mobility Unit is known as a "Snoopy cap", a reference to how the white crown and brown earflaps of the cap resemble Snoopy's fur and ears.
Snoopy was popular among the astronauts, and Schultz liked NASA. All the Apollo 10 modules had Snoopy related call signs, chosen by the astronauts.
“ The command module was given the call sign "Charlie Brown" and the lunar module the call sign "Snoopy". These were taken from the characters in the comic strip, Peanuts, Charlie Brown, and Snoopy.These names were chosen by the astronauts with the approval of Charles Schulz, the strip's creator,who was uncertain it was a good idea, since Charlie Brown was always a failure. The choice of names was deemed undignified by some at NASA…”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_10#:~:text=The%20comman...
Because space-Snoopy was quite a thing during the space race?
Which is probably part of a totally legitimate explanation, I was really just pointing out that a page about this award could include it!
The guy who created the award was a fan of Snoopy, and that's about it
Not to be needlessly cynical but I'd really like an official citation for that :)
Another question in my head is whether they had to license Snoopy from the estate of Schulz (or whoever holds the rights the Peanuts gang).
ETA that unsnap_biceps just answered my questions.
Here is the official official story: https://www.nasa.gov/history/sfa-message-everyone-plays-role...
Though I don't think I will be able to cite an official document stating Al Chop is a Snoopy fan :-), so there's that.
A reporter for the Houston Chronicle claimed to have Chop's Snoopy fandom straight from the source . . .
~ No retirement for Snoopy at NASA - https://www.collectspace.com/news/news-021400a.htmlby Thom Marshall, Houston Chronicle, January 7, 2000
> The award is a sterling silver Snoopy lapel pin that has flown in space
I find it interesting that "has flown in space" is presented here almost like a property of the material and not as history of the individual pins.
Are the pins passed on from past recipients to new ones, so the time in space was during the previous wearer's mission? Or are there ISS missions that just carry a box of not yet awarded pins with them but will not do anything with the box, just so it gains its flown-in-space-ness?
The pins are sent aboard missions to the ISS in a package and then get sent back on the next return. Each pin comes with a certificate signed by an astronaut that specifies which mission it flew up on.
recipients are non-astronaut employees. based on this site:
http://spaceflownartifacts.com/flown_silver_snoopy_awards.ht...
seems like in the apollo era crew carried a few in their PPK (personal preference kit), and in the later shuttle era they regularly carried 500-1000 pins per mission.
Ah, that makes sense, thanks.
My stepfather (passed) earned a Silver Snoopy, one of his proudest moments. My stepbrother has the certificate, but not the lapel pin. The possibility of getting a replacement is awesome, so thanks for posting this!
Related, Omega has a mechanical snoopy watch[1] which is coveted and rare with earth that circles the moon on the back of the case with snoopy that animates.
[1] https://www.chrono24.com/omega/omega-speedmaster-silver-snoo...
Swatch released a quartz version of this by the way, in a composite plastic+ceramic material:
https://www.chrono24.com/search/index.htm?dosearch=true&quer...
I know it’s going to come off as a swiss mechanical watch snob, but I am disappointed that Omega allowed swatch to clone their work of art timepieces in what are essentially plastic quartz frauds. It’s the opposite of what a high end luxury brand does. You think we’ve ever see Rolex make $500 plastic quartz watches? I think not.
> Omega allowed swatch to clone their work of art timepieces
Aren't they both basically brands owned by the same corporation (The Swatch Group)?
The back of them really are stunning, sadly the listing doesn't seem to shown that it also has snoopy in a rocket which sweeps round as well as the earth rotating - they aren't limited edition either so not impossible to obtain! (Though... Not cheap either)
Indeed, it’s a bucket list piece for me. Though, they have come down from the bat insane covid bubble prices of nearly $30,000.
A Snoopy in a space suit that has actually flown in space. Very apt, I love it.
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