January 27 – April 18, 2010

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. The exhibition examines the history of Apollo 10 and the Peanuts characters’ role in that flight and in the NASA Manned Flight Awareness safety program.

PEANUTS: © United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

Forty 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. The flight of Apollo 10 in May 1969 was the “dress rehearsal” for the first lunar landing, which took place in July 1969.  Consequently, it was a great honor when the crew of Apollo 10 chose to nickname their command and lunar modules Charlie Brown and Snoopy, respectively. 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 actually started a year earlier than the 1969 flight of Apollo 10 when he was approached by NASA with a request to use Snoopy as their safety mascot. 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 40 plus years and continues to this day in his role as NASA’s safety mascot.

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!), learn about the NASA Silver Snoopy Award program, and view a Silver Snoopy pin that was flown to the moon. The exhibit also contains a children’s creative play space where children can dress up like an astronaut and have their photograph taken with a cardboard cutoutastronaut figure.   

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

Special Programs

Saturday, March 20, 2010 is Astronomy Day. Join the Morris Museum Astronomical Society for a day of space exploration for the whole family. Tour the exhibition, To the Moon: Snoopy Soars with NASA, and take part in a children’s art workshop, lectures, telescope training and night sky observing. All activities will be at scheduled times throughout the day, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.  Free with museum admission.  For more information about these programs please call 973.971.3718.