NASA confirmed that officials wanted to get Big Bird on the doomed space shuttle Challenger, according to NBC News.
Caroll Spinney, the actor who dons Big Bird's 8'2" suit, says he was never on the passenger list. But he still came close.
"I once got a letter from NASA, asking if I would be willing to join a mission to orbit the Earth as Big Bird, to encourage kids to get interested in space," he wrote in an essay published in The Guardian.
Ultimately, though, the Big Bird puppet was deemed too big for the shuttle (again, it's 8'2"), and instead, teacher Christa McAuliffe was selected for the doomed mission.
But NASA's plans were far grander than just Big Bird. They wanted NBC News reporter Jay Barbree to fly into space and open it up to even more non-scientific types.
While Big Bird may never fly into space, "Sesame Street" may still make it into orbit, with Cookie Monster's cookie, Ernie's rubber ducky and other show staples joining the flight of Orion in December, according to a NASA press release.
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