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'It's bananas:' Toy fruit becomes first zero-g indicator to fly on SpaceX Starship

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The fake-but-full-size fruit made history as the first zero -gravity indicator to fly on a SpaceX Starship .

A camera mounted in Starship 's payload bay revealed the toy banana held by cables tied to its top and bottom.

The banana was also a stand-in for gaining the government's approval to begin launching more purposeful payloads on future Starship flights.

The mission achieved all of its main objectives, including relighting its Raptor rocket engines once in space.

Robert Pearlman is a space historian, journalist and the founder and editor of collectSPACE.com .

He is also a contributing writer for Space.com and co-author of " Space Stations: The Art, Science , and Reality of Working in Space" In 2021 , he was honored by the American Astronautical Society with the Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History..