From Tremor to Buzz Lightyear - Meet the toys who've been to space

Tremor the dinosaur floating with astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley

It's one small step for toys, and one giant leap for toy-kind!

If you were watching the launch of the Space X Demo-2 mission closely, you might have spotted something a little unusual floating with the astronauts...

That's right it's a toy dinosaur!

Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley both have kids who are big dinosaur fans, so the two astro-dads picked Tremor, a sparkly Apatosaurus, to take on their mission with them.

"That was a super cool thing for us to get a chance to do for both of our sons who I hope are super excited to see their toys floating around with us on board," Bob said during an tour of the capsule in orbit.

But Tremor isn't the first toy to blast off into space - check out some of the others below...

The first toys in space

Astronauts Jeffrey Hoffman and Rhea Seddon tested out how weightlessness affects a slinky.

On 12 April 1985, the Discovery space shuttle carried the first 11 toys into orbit, as part of mission STS-51D.

Some of the toys included a Slinky, a Yo-Yo, a paddle ball, and a toy car.

These toys were used as part of a physics demonstration to help show the effects of weightlessness in space.

Since then astronauts have taken a group of toys on more missions into space, and even filmed videos to help kids at school learn about physics.

Slime!

It's not just figures and cuddly toys that have gone to space - what about slime?!

Yes, one of the tasks that astronaut superstar Christina Koch had to carry out, was to see how slime reacted to being in space.

Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) played games with it, tossed slime-filled balloons, made slime bubbles and even sprayed each other with slime in order to understand how a fluid, which isn't water, behaves in microgravity..

Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!

Astronauts Greg Chamitoff and Mike Fincke pose with Buzz

Buzz Lightyear might not have made it to infinity and beyond, but he did visit the ISS in 2008!

The Toy Story figure flew on board the Discovery Space Shuttle twice, and spent a total of 15 months on the ISS.

After returning back to Earth, Buzz is now on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, US.

Big Earth, Little Earth

Astronaut Anne McClain took this picture of Earthy meeting Earth

'Earthy' the cuddly planet toy blasted off into space on a test mission aboard the Space X Crew Dragon in 2019.

As it was a test mission, no astronauts were on board - but Space X boss Elon Musk shared a picture of Earthy strapped into one of the chairs jokingly calling it a "super high tech zero-g indicator".

Earthy was a big hit with the crew of the ISS, and Bob Behnken even said that he expected Earthy to be there to welcome him and Doug aboard when they docked.

"Hopefully he can walk us through the emergency brief and he's a full-fledged station crew member by the time that we get there," he said.

The adventures of Miss Mouse

Tim and Miss Mouse on board the ISS

British astronaut Tim Peake took a special little astronaut with him on his mission in 2015.

That's right, Miss Mouse from the CBeebies show Show Me, Show Me blasted off with Tim to join him on board the ISS.

"We are so proud that Miss Mouse has travelled to the space station with Tim Peake. Here's hoping Tim's stocked up on the dehydrated cheese for our brave explorer!" said Kay Benbow, former Controller of CBeebies.

Crafty Dino

Dinosaur toys have flown on the ISS before and this one was even born there!

In 2013, astronaut Karen Nyberg (who happens to be married to Doug Hurley) sewed a toy dinosaur for her son Jack while on the ISS.

"It is made out of velcro-like fabric that lines the Russian food containers [that are] found here on the International Space Station," Nyberg wrote about the toy doll. "It is lightly stuffed with scraps from a used t-shirt."