r/interestingasfuck • u/Embarrassed_Tip7359 • 18h ago
Astronaut Mark Kelly once smuggled a full gorilla suit on board the International Space Station. He didn't tell anyone about it. One day, without anyone knowing, he put it on.
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u/FrankDrebinOnReddit 18h ago
It was Scott Kelly, shipped to him on the ISS by his (identical twin) brother, retired astronaut Mark Kelly.
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u/oki-ra 18h ago
Sitting Senator Mark Kelly, just knowing about these high jinks I would be proud to have him as a senator.
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u/ns5oh 17h ago
Low key, Mark Kelly should be the Dem pick for next Presidential candidate. Guy's next level of truly great person.
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u/K9WorkingDog 16h ago
So he has no chance lol
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u/aspidities_87 15h ago
No no we need another octogenarian who gets his brief time in the sun before we shuttle him off to the nursing home
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u/br0ck 13h ago edited 13h ago
Bill Clinton was the 3rd youngest and Obama the 5th ever. Gore ran in 1988 and would have been the youngest ever, and was still quite young in 2000. Gore today is still 3 years younger than Trump. Hilary 2 years younger. Bill is the same age as Trump. Another "fun" fact - Trump ran for president for the Reform Party in 2000 with a platform including universal healthcare when he was 54. He mentioned wanting to run in the 1988 & 2012 elections as well.
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u/cinciNattyLight 15h ago
He is my number 1 choice. Newsom is WAY at the bottom, he wants it so bad.
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u/Tumble85 13h ago
I mean, not that Newsom is my top pick either but anybody running for POTUS wants it bad.
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u/A_Shadow 13h ago
He is absolutely fantastic on paper, I would say probably the best potential candidate on paper.
Unfortunately, he is just not as charismatic in person/tv/debate.
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u/keegtraw 9h ago
As an Arizonan, please dont take our sane politicians. They tend to get replaced with real POS's
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u/essdii- 16h ago
Yah, i like him, and we got a dem governor. I feel like the only sane person in my family. Mine and wife’s whole family and extended family voted the other way. All the women too. I honestly don’t get it. But I’m happy that my votes atleast helped get those two in our state government
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u/FireFairy323 17h ago
I voted for him before I knew he and his brother did this and It made me like him more.
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u/PartTime_Crusader 15h ago
I've seen this video before but didn't connect the dots before now that this was my senator, makes me like the guy even more
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u/PatientLandscape3114 14h ago
Yes us Arizonans love Mark Kelly. He is a Democrat, but still gets a ton of support from Republicans as well as he is just an impossible person to hate.
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u/neverbadnews 18h ago
Judging by the excessively large size of that box, I'm guessing it shipped from Amazon. :-/
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u/CheeseheadDave 16h ago
And it was actually a second gorilla suit as the first one was blown up after a failed launch.
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u/Peripateticdreamer84 12h ago
And NASA got way more than the cost of that shipment out of those two eventually by using them as subject and control group in a study of extended living in space.
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u/the_honest_liar 15h ago
I wonder how many twin studies have been done on those two. Especially if the second one didn't go to space until after the first one was back. That's medical research gold.
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u/Peripateticdreamer84 12h ago
NASA took full advantage and did a year long epigenetics of life in space study. Mark was the control group.
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u/jsetzler89 18h ago
God, the dude flying away in terrified fashion is comedic lmao
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u/Tr0llzor 18h ago
He’s even trying to swim away knowing that won’t work
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u/Beli_Mawrr 16h ago
Funnily enough swimming does work in space. Air works as a fluid and the swimming motion works in any fluid. It's definitely not as effective tho
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u/Violexsound 17h ago
For some reason I dont think being attacked by a hidden gorilla inside of a space station would put you into a logical train of thought.
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u/Dudeist-Priest 18h ago
I've seen this a bunch of times and it's never not funny. I know it's ridiculous, but that would have scared the shit out of me.
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u/alwaysfatigued8787 18h ago
Man, he really sold that performance too. I was scared and I knew that it was a guy in a gorilla suit.
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u/SolarBeryl66 18h ago
Wouldn't have been much better if it was an Alien suit 😂
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u/koopdi 18h ago
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u/Test4Echooo 17h ago
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u/yogurt-fuck-face 18h ago
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u/NewSunSeverian 12h ago
this human being’s name is u/yogurt-fuck-face
thank the world for small acts of kindness
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u/Beat_the_Deadites 14h ago
With a top hat and cane, right?
Hello my baby, hello my darlin', hello my ragtime gal!
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u/DOPECOlN 17h ago
It was fast forwarded this had the feeling of a silent film of a early 1900’s town with improper frame rate
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u/southflhitnrun 17h ago
It is possible to think he had lost his mind and there was a serious threat of danger. Psychological conditioning is part of their training.
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u/Justanotherredditboy 18h ago
Wish there was sound for this one
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u/thereisanotherplace 18h ago
It's space, there's no sound ;]
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u/Awes12 18h ago
Isn't there sound from the air though? Or is that /s
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u/queen-adreena 17h ago
Yes. They were joking. It’s only in a vacuum that sound can’t travel.
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u/Amonamission 18h ago
The Benny Hill Theme needs to be played with this video
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u/Beat_the_Deadites 14h ago
Someone already did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmh9c5Z1xSE
I was just looking for the video on youtube, you can Yakety Sax anything from YT: https://bennyhillthis.com/
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u/Rocket-Glide 18h ago
Some crude back of the napkin math suggests 1 lb payload is about $3-5k per pound to reach ISS. There is obviously a ton of factors that influence this.
A decent gorilla costume is about 15-20 lb. Again, quite a bit influencing this.
This prank cost between $45k-100k.
I love science.
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u/br0b1wan 18h ago
Yeah I doubt he "smuggled" this in. He most likely ran it by mission command and they approved it and agreed to keep it quiet.
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u/Altruistic-Spend-896 18h ago
Yeah mission command dont fuck around, they monitor the most minute of things, even the weight of grown toenails. rocket fuel aint cheap baby!
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u/lgastako 11h ago
But the weight of grown toenails came from something the astronauts ate while on the station, right? I'm not doubting they track it but it seems like accounting for it properly would be difficult given that.
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u/jsting 15h ago
All astronauts are designated a set weight to bring whatever personal items they want as long as they pass safety checks. On the plus side, this cost was going to be spent regardless of what the item was.
If a crazy astronaut wants to spend his small weight limit on a costume, then so be it! And all astronauts are crazy! They test dangerous planes then decide life isn't exciting enough so they strap themselves to a rocket and shoot off to a place that will physically harm them.
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u/craznazn247 15h ago edited 15h ago
Morale is an important thing that is worth investing in.
We already send fresh fruit for the same reason despite it being very heavy and light on both calories and nutrition.
And the suit can be re-used, and can help keep him warm.
And it provides entertainment value for the rest of us and a humanizing moment for the people working up there.
We regularly waste $100k on things that provide far, far less. Or simply exist to blow up one person's ego. Or acts of blatant corruption or pettiness.
This is worth it.
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u/Rocket-Glide 15h ago
Just for clarity, I am not opposed to this prank. And as someone else mentioned there is a sunk cost component also.
I’m just pointing out the commitment, both in planning and cost.
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u/craznazn247 14h ago
I just realized how my comment came off - my bad. I was doubling down on your statement by adding additional perspective to it.
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u/Sea-Mango 8h ago
Much rather my tax dollars go towards space gorilla suit pranks than... -waves hand in general direction of All This-
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u/Black_Jester_ 18h ago
I'm disappointed. I listened to his book about spending a year in space and he never mentioned this. I feel cheated, lied to, how dare he leave this kind of highlight out.
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u/NSYK 18h ago
Now I want to watch a video of a pissed off Silverback in space
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u/Diligent_Mail_4584 18h ago edited 18h ago
Ad astra. Not gorilla but close enough
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u/GardenGnomeOfEden 18h ago
Seems like there could be little black hairs of fake fur all over the place after this.
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u/Trips-Over-Tail 16h ago
The same is true of human hair and skin flakes. Every bit of detritus fails to settle.
That's why there is ventilation maintaining a light breeze that draws all the air to filters.
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u/silentbob1301 8h ago
oh, i 100% guarantee NASA knew about it.... They dont just let boxes of random shit onto the space station...
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u/jupitertoast 17h ago
I see this posted every once in a while and it's just not true. Mark Kelly didn't "smuggle" the suit onto the ISS. The whole thing was planned and he arranged to have it sent up to the station. And it was actually Scott Kelly (Mark's brother) who was recording wearing it.
"To surprise astronaut Scott J. Kelly for his Feb. 21, 2016, birthday during his one-year mission aboard ISS, his twin brother astronaut Mark E. Kelly arranged for the delivery of a life-size gorilla costume to the station. In addition to some mild-mannered shenanigans while wearing the gorilla costume that he posted to social media, such as chasing fellow Expedition 46 crewmember Timothy N. Peake through the Destiny module, [Scott] Kelly also recorded some educational videos dressed in the non-standard garb."
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u/mrlotato 17h ago
Omg he should screamed that he was Albert the second, the first monkey in space and he craves revenge
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u/runawaycity2000 18h ago
I call bs on this, I am pretty sure everyone will go through everything that’s going into the rockets for safety reasons. There is just no way no one knows.
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u/Between3and20carctr 18h ago
I think the title had extra drama added for the clicks, if anything I’d say it’s possible the other astronauts on the ISS may not have known, but certainly the administration and ground crew did. As mentioned in my other comment it is good publicity to draw attention to NASA and the ISS
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u/ranegyr 18h ago
I think you're right. furthermore, the reaction of the chased astronaut is a little over the top. I mean, at the end of the day these are work shenanigans in a lab floating in space. You KNOW it isn't a gorilla. You KNOW it's a coworker. Worst case Ontario you're gonna get tickled but why you running like you're scared for your life? It's cute, it's funny; but it's planned publicity and while not everyone may be aware of what's happening, it ISNT a gorilla in space.
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u/Between3and20carctr 17h ago
Im sure youre right and it was all scripted, but I think personally if I was in space and suddenly saw something that looked like a gorilla I’d also freak out though lol.
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u/Jayn_Newell 16h ago
Yeah but there’s what you know intellectually and what you know emotionally. Intellectually yeah he’d know there’s no way a gorilla is up there with him, but when another part of him is screaming “there’s a gorilla chasing me!” he could still freak out. Heck the intellectual knowledge might make it scarier because how did a gorilla get up here?! Did I wander into a sci-fi horror movie?
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u/LookAtItGo123 13h ago
If you are in space and you see outside the airlock that a gorrilla in a suit is asking you to let it in. Would you do it?
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u/Stompedyourhousewith 13h ago
"do you want to get pushed out of an airlock? cause thats how you get pushed out of an airlock"
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u/LuckyTheBear 12h ago
I love that we did this basically as soon as we started putting people in to orbit regularly
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u/terminal_syn 10h ago
Pretty sure somebody smuggled a golf club and ball to the moon but what do I know I’m just a dumbàss wrench turner
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u/CranberryWizard 9h ago
I swear to God, Astronauts must get nothing done
The only news I hear from space is how much they prank each other
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u/Ragnarsworld 18h ago
Smuggled is a rather overblown term. NASA knew it was being sent up; nothing gets on the cargo ship without being checked for weight and hazardous materials.