The hundreds of mementos aboard Artemis II include a flag that never made it to the Moon

NASA has carried mementos on spacecraft since it first launched astronauts to space in the 1960s.

When NASA canceled the Apollo 18 mission over 50 years ago, a flag it would have carried to the moon had already been selected. With the launch of Artemis II on April 1, it finally went to space.

The flag is among hundreds of mementos and souvenirs carried into space aboard the Orion spacecraft during Artemis II.

The government canceled Apollo 18 because of budget cuts. Bringing its flag aboard Artemis II represents what Jared Isaacman, the NASA Administrator, wrote in a social media post is America’s “renewed commitment to return to the moon. This time to stay.”

The Apollo 18 flag is one of more than 200 American flags to fly on Artemis II, but it is the only full-size flag at 3-by-5 feet.

c Neil Armstrong went to the moon in 1969 with a piece of wood from the left propeller of the Wright brothers’ original Flyer.

The Orion capsule, where the four astronauts are spending their 10-day lunar flyby, continue the tradition by carrying 10 pounds of mementos and other trinkets that honor America’s history of air travel and space exploration.

Other notable mementos include a 1-square-inch swath of muslin fabric from the Wright Flyer and a copy of an image from the first spacecraft to successfully transmit close-up images of the lunar surface back to Earth.

Because Jeremy Hansen, a Canadian astronaut, is aboard the mission, the Canadian Space Agency also packed its own mementos. Those include stickers and patches promoting the agency and a Canadian flag.

There are also 100 silver Snoopy pins tucked into the flying kit. NASA astronauts present these pins to employees who demonstrate “exceptional contributions to flight safety and mission success,” according to the agency. Each pin depicts Snoopy, the beloved character from Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip “Peanuts,” in a spacesuit.