Orion Flight Test



Exploration Flight Test 1 was the first test flight of NASA's Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. It launched on December 5, 2014 from Cape Canaveral, Florida and spent approximately 4 hours in space.

The flight contained no human crew, but carried cargo in the form of several items from Sesame Street: a cookie from Cookie Monster, Ernie's Rubber Duckie, Super Grover's cape, and Slimey Oscar the Grouch's pet worm. Following Slimey's 1998 story arc in which he and a crew of worms from WASA went into space, the Orion test flight marked the first time a Muppet actually went into space (although Muppet voices had previously been heard in space for two Pigs in Space sketches recorded exclusively for Space Shuttle Columbia’s STS-2 mission in 1981).

The event was covered in social media by various accounts held by Sesame Workshop and NASA, and the items ultimately returned to their owners by astronaut Ricky Arnold on July 9, 2015.