Geo

Why did Liv create Asteroid? For the Polaris Dawn mission, Liv was invited to design the mission’s zero-gravity indicator—a small object that would float when the spacecraft reached microgravity, visually demonstrating to viewers that the crew was in zero-G. Liv loved Shiba Inu dogs and was particularly inspired by Floki, Elon Musk’s Shiba Inu. She sketched a Shiba wearing a spacesuit and called him Asteroid. on September 10, 2024, Asteroid was aboard Crew Dragon Resilience and floated inside the spacecraft as the zero-G indicator during Polaris Dawn. Liv’s love of space + love of Shibas → Liv’s drawing of Asteroid → Polaris Dawn adopts the character as its zero-G indicator → Asteroid physically flies into space. What happened afterward? Liv died on January 14, 2026, at age 15, before she could realize her wish of meeting Elon Musk in person. Her mother, Rebecca Perrotto, subsequently shared a list of questions Liv had prepared for Musk, including a particularly important final question: whether Asteroid could become the SpaceX mascot. In April 2026, Musk answered the questions publicly, with the answer to that final request being “Ok.”