‘EYES ON THE STARS’: THE ‘PEANUTS’ COLLABORATION

On 5 October 1970, astronaut Thomas P Stafford handed the Snoopy Award to Omega’s technical manager, Hans Widmer. Nasa had chosen the cartoon beagle to act as a “watchdog” over its missions in 1968, gifting employees and contractors a sterling silver “astronaut Snoopy” pin, a commendation letter and a signed, framed certificate, under the slogan “Eyes on the Stars”. (Peanuts cartoonist Charles M Schulz was a supporter of the Nasa Apollo missions, drawing “astronaut Snoopy” and then creating the pin.) The association began because of Apollo 10: that mission’s lunar module was required to check the moon’s surface and “snoop around” to reconnoitre a landing site for Apollo 11. The Apollo 10 crew thus nicknamed the mobile module “Snoopy” and their command module “Charlie Brown”. In 2003, Omega subsequently produced the Snoopy Award Speedmaster, limited to 5,441 pieces in reference to the Apollo 13 mission having lasted 142 hours, 54 minutes and 41 seconds.