Remember way back when Buzz Lightyear flew to space? Yes, the toy — and yes, really to space! He spent 468 days in orbit between May 2008 and September 2009. During his time on the International Space Station, Buzz was a dutiful crew member and did a lot of outreach to help inspire and educate students on Earth. NASA developed a series of online games and even held a Mission Patch Design Challenge to commemorate his trip.
After Buzz returned from space, he was given a hero’s welcome and an astronaut-worthy ticker tape parade at Walt Disney World in Florida. Now his Space Ranger duty location been formally moved to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum where he’ll be patrolling the new “Moving Beyond Earth” gallery starting this summer.
You can watch the entire induction ceremony online, or you can just enjoy a pre-flight clip of Buzz Lightyear getting some space training and advice from his namesake, astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
Image Credit: NASA
