Space and Physics
PUBLISHED
Astronauts living on board the International Space Station (ISS) have a lot of important research to do, but apparently that doesn't stop them from pranking the hell out of each other on a regular basis. As it is April Fool's Day, that special day of the year when you make a family member, friend, or colleague look like a gullible tit, we thought we would share a few of the best pranks conducted by these space pranksters.
The Apollo 10 pooper
I want this one on the list, but it cannot rank highly as there is a good chance it was a toilet mishap rather than a prank. On the way to loop around the Moon, Commander Thomas Stafford noticed they had an unusual "zero gravity indicator" floating around the place.
Yes, during the final dress rehearsal before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first stepped foot on the lunar surface, somebody took a crap in Charlie Brown (the name of the command module) and denied it, with Commander Stafford insisting his were "more sticky than that".
Whilst toilet mishaps seem most likely, a prank is possible given the surprising emergence of a second turd a little while later.
We will likely never know who the mystery pooper was, as unfortunately none of the astronauts were trained in space interrogation techniques.
Peggy Whitson bagged herself
In 2017, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson took the unusual step of bagging herself up and having herself delivered to the Russian part of the space station.
Whilst not the most sophisticated of space pranks, it's a pretty pleasing image of an astronaut clearly very amused at her joke.
The alien
Again, not the most sophisticated prank, though certainly more sophisticated than taking a crap in the command module. In 2025 one astronaut, coming to relieve Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore following their unplanned extra months on the ISS, donned an alien mask when they entered the space station.
Houston, all these space photographs are nudes
On board Skylab in 1973, astronaut Owen Garriott had been asked to set up a Polaroid camera sent by a solar physicist. The camera, they were told, was to be used to capture images in very low light. After several days of hassling the astronauts to set it up, Garriott finally got around to it.
"So I set up the camera and got it all ready and thought, well, I'd better take a picture or two to make sure that it's working right. So as Jack Lousma floated from one end to the other end, click, and as you remember, the Polaroid film just rolls right out," Garriott retold the story as part of NASA's oral history project.
"So looked at the picture; centerfold, right out of Playboy. So I took another picture, another centerfold right out of Playboy. So he loaded the whole camera, the first film pack with centerfolds from Playboy."
"So the next time he called, 'Owen, have you set up that camera?' 'Yes, Paul, I did get it and we got some very interesting pictures.' That's all he ever said. When we came back home, we then discussed it and joked about how it had worked just as planned," he added.
The "greatest" prank pulled in space
Often referred to as the "greatest prank ever pulled in space", in 2016 astronaut Scott Kelly put on a gorilla costume and started flying around the ISS, the idea of his brother and fellow astronaut Mark Kelly. The prank was supposed to have taken place the year before, but the gorilla suit was on board a SpaceX rocket that exploded, causing a slight delay.
In widely circulated footage, Kelly is seen chasing British astronaut Tim Peake through the space station.
Peake was in on the bit, but the others weren't. While the Russian cosmonauts laughed when he went to the Russian section of the space station, he got a little more of a reaction when he hid in the sleeping quarters and waited for a fellow astronaut to come in.
"When he went to open the door, I busted out of there," Scott told People, adding, "afterwards I was a little worried that I could have given him a heart attack or something."
As a bonus, the availability of a gorilla costume led to this surreal scene: a gorilla floating in microgravity and revealing what it's like to cry in space.
The actual greatest prank pulled in space
Look, nobody here is saying a gorilla going nuts in microgravity isn't a great prank. But calling it the greatest overlooks a prank that took place on Skylab, and baffled actual rocket scientists at NASA for a quarter of a century.
The prank took place on September 10, 1973, during a two month stay on the space station by Owen Garriott, Jack Lousma, and Alan Bean. On that day, mission control was surprised to hear a female voice coming from Skylab's radio, with no female astronauts on board. What was more surprising was that the voice appeared to be answering mission control's questions, and claimed to be on board Skylab and describing events on the Earth below.
The story was again retold by Garriott – the astronaut behind the prank – in NASA's oral history project:
As Skylab comes around in orbit to get into radio communication, all of a sudden this female voice comes on the line, and says, "Hello, Houston, this is Skylab.
The capcom, who happened to be Robert [L.] Crippen, said, "Well, hello, Skylab. Who is this?"
This female voice says, "Hi, there, Bob, this is Helen," my wife at the time.
"What are you doing up there?" Crippen asks.
"Well, we just came up to bring the boys a fresh meal, or a hot cooked meal. They haven't had one for quite a while. We thought they might enjoy that."
He says, "How did you get there?"
She says, "Oh, we just flew up. We've been looking at those forest fires that they have all over California. It's a beautiful [sight] from up here." The female voices says, "Well, I see the boys are floating in my direction. I've got to get off the line. I'm not supposed to be talking to you. See you later, Bob," and then it goes off.
The great thing about this prank is that ground control were genuinely confused about what the hell was going on, calling the astronauts on board Skylab again as well as their wives to get to the bottom of it, but found them where they were supposed to be – on Earth.
Twenty-five years later, with NASA still unsure how the prank was pulled off, Garriott revealed the secret. He had pre-recorded his wife, Helen, as well as appropriate pauses, on a recorder prior to launch. Knowing that certain seasonal events occur – such as hurricanes and forest fires – the pair recorded a few options, and a few variants depending on who would be manning the radio back on Earth.
Crippen was in on the prank, and had learned his lines to respond to Helen's voice. When there was a forest fire visible below, Garriott deployed the prank, and Crippen performed his lines perfectly, leaving NASA with a disembodied voice mystery for a full 25 years.
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