Not to forget, to go further.

On the end of January 1967 after Apollo 1 tragedy, NASA stopped public launch activities to review many of the elements of the Apollo Programme. One of these was the Apollo hatch, which was the main cause of the death of the three beloved crew members (Grissom, White and Chaffee), because it could not be opened as much quickly as it would have deserved. The opening procedure took about 90 seconds at the time and it was not bearable in case of fire in a negative pressure cabin full of oxygen.

After this, Nasa engineers where asked to design a hatch openable in not more 3 seconds. And they succeeded! By observing the mechanisms designed more than 50 years ago now, it still seems something from another planet and deserves all the admiration to the genius of the engineers who worked (and still work too) to make such dreams come true.

Astronauts, with their courage and tenacity are important, but all the engineers and technicians involved to let them fly to the Universe are fundamental. So my tribute to all the "bespectacled" men and women who helped (and still do it) Mankind's Universe Exploration dream come true.

For this reason I thought to two characters: Hatchy and Starrie.

Hatchy, a little aged, is an old Apollo 11 hatch.

With his nose made by the porthole, he is very curious and funny.

He loves to tell the young kids all the secrets behind any space mission: how it is made and, especially, what's behind it on earth, where everything still starts (till lunar and martian bases in the future...) . He has blond hairs recalling a flame: just a reminder never to happen again and wears a pair of moon boots. It could be detailed with some space missions insignia (i.e. Apollo 11..)

Starrie is a lovable, very patient and maternal yellow dwarf star (like the Sun).

Since she knows everything about the universe origin, she is perfect to tell the kids how universe is made and all of its secrets. She wears an orange space suit (it could be white too, but her heat turns it orange, like Space Shuttle Orbiter's Space Suits). Her name is a little inspired to "Carrie" (as a tribute to actress Carrie Fisher, for her iconic Princess Leia role in Star Wars).

Their names could be also a tribute to the series "Starsky & Hutch" I looked in the mid Seventies at the times of NASA Skylab Joint Experiments, who led the way to STS Space Shuttle and ISS missions...