Image: Axiom Space

Sunday afternoon, SpaceX launched the Axiom-2 mission on a week-long journey to the International Space Station. Like all crewed missions, it featured a zero-g indicator, and you can buy your own.

Axiom-2 is a privately operated mission to the ISS in partnership with NASA by Axiom Space. On board are four crew members, commander Peggy Whitson, pilot John John Shoffner, and mission specialists Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi. The last two are both professional astronauts from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

It’s tradition for human spaceflight missions to bring a zero-g indicator. This does exactly what you think it does. Once the crew has entered a state of weightlessness, the indicator begins to float around while they are strapped in their seats.

For Axiom-2, the company partnered with Build-A-Bear to create a teddy bear that would be able to wear the company’s new spacesuit intended for use on the lunar surface with the Artemis Program.

Image: Axiom Space

Because of its partnership with Build-A-Bear, it makes it very easy for you to purchase the same zero-g indicator. Axiom’s “Happy Hugs Teddy” variant can be purchased for $42 at Build-A-Bear’s website.

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A little history on the suit

The suit the teddy bear is wearing is based on the color scheme of Axiom’s lunar EVA suit. Axiom was selected last year to provide the suit astronauts would wear on the surface of the Moon for Artemis missions.

Axiom Space’s Artemis lunar EVA suit. Image: Axiom Space

So starting on Artemis 3, end of 2025, Axiom’s suit, not precisely the same as this one but similar enough, will be worn on the surface of the Moon. The first humans to be on the lunar surface since Apollo 17 over 50 years ago.