Dan Seddon
The International Space Station welcomed an 'alien' on board this week, but fear not Bob Lazar, it had a rubber face.
Joining Sunita 'Suni' Williams, Barry 'Butch' Wilmore and Aleksandr Gorbunov, the grey 'alien' caught the attention of livestream viewers wondering what the reason behind it could be.
SpaceX's Crew Dragon 10 astronauts Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Takuya Onishi and Kirill Peskov were the fortunate few to witness first-hand the moment as they arrived at the ISS in order to relieve Crew-9 from their observational duties in the black expanse of space.
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Worn by Crew-9 commander Nick Hague, this rubberised facial piece, which was accompanied by a black hoodie, continued a long-established tradition of NASA tomfoolery.
Fancy dress costumes are almost part of the ISS furniture these days, as astronauts have donned Superman, Spider-Man, Darth Vader and Super Mario getups over the years just for a laugh.
Hague's newest addition to this amusing pantheon was celebrated on social media.
"What can I say? I’m loving the alien mask," wrote one X user, while a second joked: "I knew it!!! Watching the SpaceX Dragon capsule docking live I caught a glimpse of a damn alien wearing a hoodie!!! I KNEW IT!!!"
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A third comment read: "They have a sense of humour up there."
Williams and Wilmore have been working on the ISS since June 2024 thanks to problems with their Boeing Starliner; they were originally scheduled for an eight-day stay but were forced to remain onboard.
Despite this (pretty damn cool) inconvenience, a retired astronaut named Cady Coleman has since revealed that the duo won't receive any special compensation as NASA deems their extra hours as akin to a work trip.
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"There is some small amount of money every day for incidentals that they end up being legally obligated to pay you," noted Coleman, although this'll apparently come to just $1,000 (£770) in total for their extended stay.
Meanwhile, Williams previously reflected on the situation during a press conference, suggesting that their loved ones may have gone through an even tougher time.
"It's been a rollercoaster for them, probably a little more so than for us. We came up prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short. That's what we do in human space flight. That's what your nation's human space flight program is all about, planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies," she said.