Meet Sasha the Space Sloth, Now the Fastest on SpaceX’s Crew-7 Mission!

Meet Sasha the Space Sloth

This remarkable feat unfolded aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft “Endurance,” which embarked on its journey from Florida early on Saturday morning, August 26.

The crew, comprising Danish astronaut Andreas “Andy” Mogensen of the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA’s Jasmin Moghbeli, JAXA’s Satoshi Furukawa, and Konstantin Borisov from Russia’s Roscosmos, are now cruising in Earth orbit at an astonishing 17,500 mph (28,200 kph).

According to a published article, Sasha the space sloth is right there with them, moving at a pace that would make your everyday sloth look like a speed demon. On Earth, three-toed sloths move at a leisurely 0.15 miles per hour (0.24 km/h).

So, why the sudden hustle for Sasha the space sloth? Well, it turns out, Sasha the space sloth’s job on this interstellar adventure is to be the astronauts’ “zero-g indicator.”

When the spacecraft enters orbit and the gravity of Earth is left behind, Sasha starts floating inside the cabin, sending a clear signal to the crew that they’ve entered the microgravity realm of outer space.

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Why Sasha the Space Sloth?

But why a sloth of all creatures? Mogensen, the Crew-7 pilot, explained that his three children had a hand in choosing the zero-g indicator.

They picked the sloth because it happens to be one of their favorite animals. Mogensen and his family once had a special encounter with sloths in the wild during a trip to Costa Rica, making the decision even more meaningful.

However, there’s a humorous twist to the sloth selection. Mogensen’s children also teasingly call him a sloth due to his reputation as the “slowest person alive” when it comes to leaving the house. This playfully ironic connection led to the choice of the three-toed sloth.

The tradition of flying zero-g indicators dates back to the very first human in space, Yuri Gagarin, who brought a small doll on his 1961 mission to witness it float in microgravity. SpaceX adopted this tradition when it began flying astronauts in 2019.

Sasha the space sloth will soon meet “Suhail,” the symbol of the UAE astronaut program and Crew-6’s zero-g indicator when Crew-7 arrives at the space station.

As for Sasha the space sloth, it appears to be part of Wild Republic’s Ecokins line of “soft and cuddly” plush animals made from 100 percent recycled water bottles. You can get your very own 8-inch (20-centimeter) Ecokins Sloth Mini for $14.

So, whether slow or fast, Sasha the space sloth may have a valuable lesson to teach us all: “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.”

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