America's space program will lift off again Thursday, and some of your favorite TV friends will be sending mementos to space along with it! The deep space craft called Orion will orbit the earth twice in four hours at an altitude of 36 hundred miles, the furthest into space we've traveled in 42 years.
There's also an Ohio connection, as experts from NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland conducted wind tunnel tests to validate the aerodynamics and engineers at the University of Dayton worked on protection for the craft's hull.
There won't be any astronauts on 'this' trip, but Orion will provide NASA with valuable data for future manned missions to asteroids and eventually to mars.
Orion won't be completely empty though and here's where our friends come in. The PBS show Sesame Street donated cookie monster's cookie, and Ernie's rubber ducky to send up during the test.
NASA included them to inspire students to get interested in space flight. Also on board is a tyrannosaurus rex fossil, borrowed from Denver's Science Museum.