Scott Kelly’s Gorilla Spacesuit Makes A Comeback

While many of us dream of going to space, most astronauts who have had the honor will tell you that it gets old after a while. You don’t really have much to do, and things can get quite monotonous over time. So, most astronauts look for fun ways to amuse themselves and find humor while in the cold, dark expanse of space. 

Mark Kelly – a Senator from Arizona who used to be an astronaut – got some buzz back in 2016 after he sent his twin brother Scott (also an astronaut) a gorilla suit. Speaking with reporters, Scott explained that he had been on the phone with Mark one day, and the latter told him that he was sending him a gorilla suit. 

Why? Well, it’s simple – there’s never been a gorilla in space before, so Mark thought Scott could do the honors. Mark vacuum-packed the suit and sent it to a SpaceX station via a cargo delivery. Surprisingly, the attempt worked!

As the story goes, Scott donned the gorilla suit and hid in the space station. A video that was posted on Twitter back in 2016 showed Scott hiding in a large white bag in the gorilla suit before jumping out and scaring fellow astronaut Tim Peake.

The video already got over 9 million hits, with more than 75,000 retweets and 365,000 likes. Interestingly, Peake himself wasn’t surprised by the prank. As he explained, the entire thing had actually been staged as the astronauts were looking to get a laugh.

But the prank didn’t just serve for laughter purposes. Scott recorded an educational video while wearing the suit, proving that you can be smart and still have quite a lot of fun.