Just before the first man landed on the moon, Charlie Brown and Snoopy soared through space with NASA’s Apollo 10 mission in May 1969. To the Moon: Snoopy Soars with NASA, a traveling exhibition on view at the Headquarters Library, from June 1 to August 6, examines the history of Apollo 10 and the Peanuts characters’ role in that flight and in the NASA Manned Flight Awareness safety program.

 

It is difficult to imagine - although some remember it well - the excitement that the race for the moon invoked over fifty years ago. As the decade of the 1960s was coming to a close, America and the rest of the world waited with great anticipation to see if NASA could achieve President John F. Kennedy's challenge, put forth in May 1961, of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Consequently, it was a very great honor, indeed, when the crew of Apollo 10 chose to nickname their command and lunar modules Charlie Brown and Snoopy, respectively. The flight of Apollo 10 in May 1969 was the “dress rehearsal” for the lunar landing that was scheduled for July 1969. Astronauts Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan piloted Snoopy within 50,000 feet of the lunar surface as they scouted the landing area for Apollo 11 while John Young orbited the moon in the command module Charlie Brown.

 

Charles Schulz’s involvement with NASA began a year earlier than the 1969 flight of Apollo 10 when he was approached by NASA with a request to use Snoopy as their symbol for safety. The Silver Snoopy Award program was instituted to improve the safety record of NASA employees and contractors. It proved to be a huge success with the astronauts and the employees. The Silver Snoopy pin is a much coveted award. Snoopy has been on the job for 50 plus years and continues to this day to be the face of safety for NASA.

In To the Moon: Snoopy Soars with NASA, visitors will see Snoopy’s trip to the moon in the March 1969 Peanuts strip series (besting NASA’s record by a few months!) and learn about the NASA’s Silver Snoopy Award program.

 

To the Moon: Snoopy Soars with NASA is organized and toured by the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, Santa Rosa, California.

 

Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center

2301 Hardies Lane, Santa Rosa, CA 95403

(707) 579-4452 | schulzmuseum.org

 

The Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center opened in 2002 to fulfill its mission of preserving, displaying, and interpreting the art of Charles M. Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, and building an understanding of cartoon art. Located 50 miles north of San Francisco in Sonoma County, California - where Schulz lived and worked for over 40 years - the Schulz Museum features the largest collection of original Peanuts comic strips in the world and presents changing exhibitions and programming for all ages. The museum also provides reference services and supports a robust traveling exhibition program. For more information, visit schulzmuseum.org.

 

Spartanburg’s first public library opened on October 17, 1885, thanks to a generous donation from Mrs. Helen Fayssoux Kennedy in honor of her husband, Dr. Lionel Chalmers Kennedy, a well-known and respected physician who passed away five years earlier. Since that time, the library system has grown to include 10 full-service branch libraries and a Bookmobile. Now operating with a staff of approximately 200 employees, the Libraries continue to strive towards their mission to inspire people to pursue lifelong learning for a thriving Spartanburg County. Each location provides a variety of programming for children, teens and adults and is equipped with meeting room facilities, free internet access, and shelves full of books, magazines, movies, music and more. For those who are not able to come into a library, Homebound services delivers books to shut-ins almost every day. Additionally, many downloadable resources are available on our website, www.spartanburglibraries.org.