Signed Astronaut Snoopy Doll and Box

Signed Astronaut Snoopy Doll and Box

1960s Snoopy Doll, dressed as an astronaut and signed by Apollo 10 Lunar Module Pilot, Gene Cernan.

Snoopy has been associated with NASA ever since he was selected as a mascot for the Manned Flight Awareness Program. Al Chop, the director of the public affairs office for the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, had come up with the idea after NASA had been tasked with finding a way of incentivising all of the contractors that were working on their behalf. Outstanding achievements were rewarded by giving the recipient the Silver Snoopy award – a silver Snoopy pin, given in an effort to encourage high levels of safety and quality control in the aftermath of the Apollo 1 disaster. Creator of the famous Peanuts characters, Charles Schulz, drew the design for the pin himself and Snoopy became strongly linked with Project Apollo thereafter.

The link was so strong that Snoopy even flew to the Moon. When the crew of Apollo 10 was selecting names for their Command Module and Lunar Module, they came up with ‘Charlie Brown’ and ‘Snoopy’. Apollo 10 would fly to the Moon in a dress rehearsal of Apollo 11’s historic journey. The Lunar Module ‘Snoopy’ flew to within 16km of the Moon’s surface, with astronauts Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan inside. Many Snoopy related collectibles were made as a result, including this one that Gene Cernan has later signed.

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