Your space fact for this week is that in 2013, Astronaut Karen Nyberg made a toy dinosaur for her son from materials already aboard the International Space Station. The Tyrannosaurus Rex was made out of the fabric liners of the Russian food rations and stuffed with an old shirt. It had an olive-green back and a lighter green belly and was sewn together with white thread.

This was not the first toy on the ISS. Cosmonauts and astronauts regularly bring up small stuffed toys that function as “zero-G indicators” that tell the crew when they have entered orbit. It is probably the first one that was Made in Space.

More Information

‘Made in Space!’ Astronaut Sews Dinosaur Toy from Space Station Scraps (Space.com)