After docking with the Worldwide House Station, the newest crew visiting the orbital outpost have been met with a startling sight.
Particularly, Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner greeted them whereas carrying a cartoonish alien masks. Footage reveals Vagner pushing himself into the docking portion carrying the costume.
He then will be seen haunting the premises whereas crew members are getting ready to deboard the brand new guests.
A NASA spokesperson confirmed to Futurism that Vagner “wore it down on the hatch so it might be the very first thing the Crew-10 crew noticed when the hatch opened.”
“It’s actually similar to it seemed to be, a fast prank,” the spokesperson added.
All instructed, it seems like a second of levity — assuming he did not scare any of the incoming astronauts too badly — to punctuate an in any other case prolonged and meticulous docking process.
It is a significantly long-awaited mission. Fellow ISS crew members and NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been ready for this second since final summer time, with the pair stranded on board the ISS since June as a result of major technical issues plaguing Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft that introduced them there. (The pair have now departed the station and are headed again to Earth.)
The hijinx are harking back to the time NASA astronaut Mark Kelly tried to send a full-body gorilla suit to his equivalent twin brother Scott, who was stationed on board the ISS on the time.
The primary swimsuit exploded after the SpaceX mission to ship it to the station blew up in June 2015. A second try in February 2016 proved extra profitable, and a now-iconic video reveals Scott Kelly dressing up within the swimsuit and hiding on board the station earlier than coming out to terrify his compatriots.
“After all folks appreciated it,” Kelly told People magazine in 2022. “How will you not like area gorilla?”
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