The first astronauts to enter a polar orbit chose the obvious animal to serve as their zero-g indicator: a plush polar bear. The doll also has an emperor penguin embroidered on its chest.

Another polar bear, one of the three mascots for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, then flew as the zero-g indicator for Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and JAXA ...