This MTV "Moonman" statuette, a Video Music Awards trophy with its base removed, was flown in space aboard the Russian space station Mir in September 1996. MTV's client, Pepsi, paid for the award to be launched to Mir so it would be aboard when host Dennis Miller spoke to the cosmonauts via satellite during the 1996 Video Music Awards show. Although the pressures of live television and delays in voice transmission and language translation made their conversation very awkward, the event fit the VMAs' reputation as an unconventional awards show where the unexpected happens.
MTV Networks donated the award to the Museum in 2007.
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.