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Bobbleheads from Space

Bobbleheads Fashioned After Astronauts

LANCASTER, Calif. - Two thousand flight-suited bobblehead dolls with the facial features of astronauts W.J. "Pete" Knight and G. Gorden Fullerton were given away as a promotion at a minor league baseball game on August 13.

The two pilots agreed to have bobbleheads made in their likenesses before Knight's death May 7 from leukemia at age 74. The figurines with the oversized spring-mounted heads were available at the Lancaster JetHawks game to salute the aerospace industry in the Antelope Valley.

"It gives our fans something different," the JetHawks general manager, Brad Seymour, said. "It's a unique way to use the bobblehead craze, and these are obviously two very well-respected people in the community."

Knight had a 32-year career in the Air Force before he went into politics. He earned his astronaut wings by flying X-15 rocket planes at Edwards Air Force Base, then went to Vietnam, where he flew F-100 fighter jets and earned three Distinguished Flying Crosses.

Fullerton, 67, went into space on shuttles Columbia and Challenger and has flown high-performance aircraft for more than four decades, starting as an Air Force pilot in F-86 fighters and B-47 bombers. He still flies for NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards.

"Gordon is very humble. It took him a little bit to come around to the idea. Sen. Knight was very excited about the idea," Seymour said.

The bobbleheads were produced by a Seattle company called Alexander Global, which since 1999 has made more than 18 million bobbleheads depicting 5,200 individuals.

- Excerpted from Associate Press