SpaceX launched its Transporter-9 rideshare mission on November 11th, 2023, from Vandenberg AFB to a sun-synchronous orbit, with 89 satellites.
The Belgian company Aerospacelab manufactures satellites. Via a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX, in the Transporter Smalsat Rideshare Program, a 120-kilogram satellite was sent into space from the U.S. Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on November 11th, 2023.
The mission will last five years during which the satellite will take pictures of vegetation on Earth that will be forwarded to polar stations for further analysis. The satellite is called SPIP, in full Multi SPectral Imagery Prototype, and Spip has been chosen as the mascot for it. The crest on which he appears is engraved on the satellite.
Aerospacelab CEO Benoit Deper explains the choice: "Since we are all comic book fans in the company and we grew up with Spirou, flying Spip into space was a nod to the comics." The company is barely 1.5 kilometers from Dupuis, the publisher of the adventures of Spirou and Spip. That spacecraft are occasionally named after cartoon characters or fly along as mascots is not a rarity. The latest in line is the squirrel Spip from the comic series Spirou and Fantasio, designed by Rob-Vel, the first cartoonist of the series. In the comic series, he flew with his owner several times in space. Recently, that has become reality.