The opening of ESA’s new events venue in the UK was attended by a very special guest: ESA’s specially trained woolly astronaut Shaun the Sheep.
Earlier this year, Shaun the Sheep became Europe's first lunar ‘lamb-bassador’ after returning to UK following the Artemis I mission which took him around the Moon and back. Shaun made the journey in NASA’s Orion spacecraft, which was powered by ESA’s European Service Module.
Artemis I launched on 16 November 2022 and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on 11 December. The mission did not carry a human crew but instead was controlled from the ground with its woolly specialist as a passenger.