The Silver Snoopy award pin

Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in NASA’s Apollo program, and the third intended to land on the moon. Two days and 200,000 miles away from Earth after launch, an oxygen tank exploded and crippled the entire spacecraft leading Lovell to inform space command,  “Houston, we have a problem.” Relying on their test flight experience before becoming astronauts, Fred Haise, Jack Swigert, and Jim Lovell overcame the loss of cabin heat, shortage of potable water, and the critical need to make makeshift repairs to the carbon dioxide removal system. The crew used Omega Speedmaster watches as part of their successful return to Earth, an action for which OMEGA received NASA’s Silver Snoopy Award.

Snoopy, the intrepid Beagle of comic strip fame, was not new to the NASA program. After the Apollo 1 fire that killed three astronauts in 1967, NASA approached Snoopy creator, Charles Schulz, to ask for permission to use his character as the basis for a new safety award. Despite warnings from friends worried that his characters would forever be associated with disaster should another tragedy happen, Shultz said that if the astronauts could risk their lives, he could risk his characters.  Snoopy is now NASA’s official safety mascot, and every astronaut since 1968 has worn a silver Snoopy pin into space. Upon return, the astronauts present the pin as a special recognition to a civilian team member who helped keep them safe during the mission. It’s their personal award that comes with a certificate and letter of appreciation from the astronauts. Because fewer than 1% of the workforce has been recognized with a Silver Snoopy each year, it one of the most prized awards in the industry.

Snoopy was the official mascot for the Apollo 10 mission. As the story goes, the mission required the lunar module to skim the moon’s surface to within 50,000 feet and “snoop around” scouting for Apollo 11’s future landing site, so it was fitting that the lunar module would be named, “Snoopy.” Naturally, the Apollo command module would become “Charlie Brown.”  A giant stuffed “Snoopy” met the crew as they left for the launch, each astronaut petting his nose for luck.

Headed for the launch pad, Apollo 10 commander Tom Stafford pats the nose of a stuffed Snoopy held by Jamye Flowers (Coplin), astronaut Gordon Cooper’s secretary. Photo Credit: NASA

We come full circle back to that watch. Take a good look at it. To mark the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission in 2015, Omega created the “Moonwatch” that featured a Super-LumiNova Snoopy on the 9 o’clock sub-dial. The phrase associated with Flight Director, Gene Krantz, “Failure is not an option” appeared on the dial, as well as the phrase, “What could you do in 14 seconds?” a reference to the watch having been used to time the 14-second maneuver that proved critical in returning the crew back to earth. The 14 squares above the phrase represent the number of panels in a Sunday Snoopy comic strip.

Not bad for a little Beagle.