by Demand:
A NASA astronaut once surprised his colleagues by wearing a gorilla suit aboard the International Space Station.
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Former astronaut twin brothers Mark and Scott Kelly organized a gorilla suit stunt aboard the International Space Station that crew members knew about in advance. But it was Scott, not Mark, who was recorded throwing it in space, contrary to some social posts.
Since 2016, there have been claims spread (archive) on the social media (archive) sneakily former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly”smuggling a full gorilla suit aboard the International Space Station” (archive). A Reddit post from 2023 says he put it on there without warning anyone:
Mark Kelly – also an astronaut – has a twin brother named Scott Kelly, and many posts on social media said the same thing about him:
In 2016, former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly smuggled a full gorilla suit aboard the International Space Station but didn’t tell anyone about it. Until one day, he decided to rip off his fellow crew members pic.twitter.com/uop15g6bHW
— WTF Facts (@mrwtffacts) February 17, 2023
While this actually happened, posts like the ones above have contradicted some of the details surrounding the #SpaceGorilla stunt. Mark and Scott Kelly planned the gorilla suit adventure together, and everyone on the International Space Station crew was told about it ahead of time. Mark Kelly, who was not on the ISS at the time, arranged for the suit to be sent from Earth to Scott Kelly, who wore the suit in the video.
Both Kelly brothers posted on X about it. We went through Mark Kelly’s X (formerly Twitter) timeline and found that he originally posted the timeline video on February 22, 2016 (archived):
Scott Kelly posting (archive) the next day, and received more than 23,000 likes:
Our newsroom then searched through the NASA archives and found a summary of the #SpaceApe debacle posted by the space agency on February 4, 2020. It confirmed other news accounts that said Mark Kelly decided to send the suit from Earth to his twin brother aboard the ISS:
To surprise astronaut Scott J. Kelly for his birthday on February 21, 2016, during his one-year mission aboard the ISS, his astronaut twin, Mark E. Kelly, arranged for a life-size gorilla suit to be delivered to the station . In addition to some light-hearted shenanigans while wearing the gorilla outfit that he posted on social media, such as chasing fellow Expedition 46 crew member Timothy N. Peake through the Destiny module, [Scott] Kelly also recorded several educational videos dressed in the non-standard outfit.
As Scott Kelly said People in January 2022 (archive), the whole stunt was planned – and fellow astronaut Tom Peak, who was also shown in the video, was not surprised:
All that on stage. That’s why it’s floating around, floating in the air, we wanted it to look funny.
It was the end of my year in space … so you need a little humor.
Tagging on his out-of-this-world primate fame, Scott Kelly even posted an educational post video to X on October 16, 2017, (archive) while wearing the #SpaceGorilla suit, explaining “what happens when you cry in space.”
Mark Kelly, who became US Senator from Arizonaretired from NASA and the US Navy in June 2011 after 10 years of spaceflight, according to his NASA profile. Scott Kelly was first selected by NASA in 1996 and retired from the space agency after 20 years of service.
Sources:
“Astronaut Scott Kelly Reveals True Story Behind Video of Him in Gorilla Suit Aboard Space Station.” Peoplemag, https://people.com/human-interest/astronaut-scott-kelly-reveals-real-story-behind-viral-video-gorilla-suit-aboard-space-station/ . Accessed 14 March 2024.
“Home | US Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona.” Senator Mark Kelly, https://www.kelly.senate.gov/. Accessed 14 March 2024.
“https://Twitter.Com/CaptMarkKelly/Status/701918950678892544.” X (formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/CaptMarkKelly/status/701918950678892544 . Accessed 14 March 2024.
“Https://Twitter.Com/StationCDRKelly/Status/702239878323372032.” X (formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/StationCDRKelly/status/702239878323372032 . Accessed 14 March 2024.
“Https://Twitter.Com/Stationcdrkelly/Status/919971753320964097?Lang=en.” X (formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/stationcdrkelly/status/919971753320964097?lang=en . Accessed 14 March 2024.
“https://Twitter.Com/Todd_Spence/Status/1480256216618049537.” X (formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/Todd_Spence/status/1480256216618049537 . Accessed 14 March 2024.
20th Space Station: Celebrating a Birthday on ISS – NASA. 4 February 2020, https://www.nasa.gov/history/space-station-20th-celebrating-birthdays-on-iss/.
