SpaceX launch: ‘Dinosaur’ hitches a ride to space along with astronauts, people can’t keep calm

On May 31, Falcon 9, a rocket ship by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, thundered away from Earth with two veteran NASA astronauts, Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken. A video showing the duo preparing for the launch also made its way onto social media. However, in the clip, people noticed that the astronauts didn’t embark on this historic journey alone. In fact, they have something else to keep them company – a ‘dinosaur’. To be precise, it’s a sparkly and glittery dinosaur toy.

Two humans going to space is cool but them going with a stuffed animal toy is even cooler – at least that’s what netizens suggest.

Take a look at the video which has now created an online chatter, especially on Twitter.

It didn’t take long for people to speculate the reasons as to why they’re carrying the toy. Here’s one creative mind of Twitter who joked that it’s not a toy but their map:

Another user of the micro-blogging platform came up with this joke:

The real reason behind this unusual ‘passenger’ is quite sweet and somewhat emotional. Turns out, both the astronauts have one son each and they’re dinosaur lovers, reports The Verge. Before their dads went off to space, they collected all their dinosaur toys and sparkly Apatosaurus came out as the winner.

The toy was also spotted during launch preparations on Wednesday and Saturday. Geophysicist Mika McKinnon identified it as a TY Flippables Tremor Dinosaur covered with reversible sequins.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is the first private company to launch people into the orbit. The astronauts are scheduled to stay at the International Space Station for up to four months before they return to Earth.