Sailor Moon's Artemis Watches Over NASA's Artemis II Mission

America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) took hold of the world's attention on Wednesday when it launched its Artemis II mission, on course to be the first manned mission to fly by the Moon in five decades. And who was there to oversee the launch? None other than Sailor Moon's white feline partner to Sailor Venus, Artemis.

Image via NASA's YouTube channel

© NASA

During the launch and ongoing journey around the far side of the Moon, a plush of the Sailor Moon mascot is proudly on display behind the Capcom (not the game company, CAPsule COMmunicator) desk at the Mission Control Center in Houston.

The Artemis II is a 10-day NASA mission to send four astronauts on a flyby of the Moon. The crew consists of Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hanson.

Artemis first appeared in Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor Moon semi-prequel manga series Codename: Sailor V as Minako Aino's partner. The character later appeared in the main Sailor Moon manga with Minako (Sailor Venus).

Source: NASA's YouTube channel