Snoopy and NASA

I seem to be rapidly regressing to my childhood these days. Yesterday I paid a visit to the Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, where the exhibit To the Moon is in its last week. This brings together artifacts documenting the use of Charlie Brown & Snoopy as mascots on the Apollo 10 mission in May 1969. One of the more curious objects is a small painting of Snoopy, not done by Schulz, which was flown on the mission & captured in video images sent back to Earth. It was used to demonstrate the color transmission capabilities of the video link. They also have the original Snoopy astronaut doll, which I remember playing with as a kid.

I've been to the museum a few times now, & I'm impressed at how that they constantly change the exhibits. Upstairs there is currently a small display about Schulz's WWII service, including a camp sketchbook & illustrated letters. And to make my visit complete, I even saw Jean Schulz, Charles Schulz's widow, chatting with some visitors in the hall.

Of course it can also be a bit too much. In another building there's a collection of Peanuts merchandise. Who knew there are official Peanuts mahjong tiles? Yet I wasn't really surprised.