Credit: Dangerous Minds / Scott Kelly / NASA

No matter how experienced an astronaut you may be, there must be a small part of you that’s tensed up, ready for absolutely anything.

Despite the billions of dollars spent making sure that the craft you’re floating in his as safe as it possibly can be, you’re still in literal space. Being as safe as you possibly can be in space isn’t all that safe, and you, as a literal astronaut, would know that better than most. If the slightest thing goes wrong, there’s a decent chance you’ll be dead in minutes. Obviously, you and your family wouldn’t be all that chuffed about that, but in the bigger picture, it’d probably also affect the very future of space travel. Making people less likely to invest in exploring the final frontier of human discovery.

Needless to say, that must make the atmosphere (pun very much intended) of these space expeditions pretty tense. Of course, the likelihood of something going wrong isn’t very high, but only because everyone on board is trained to an almost militaristic level to keep it from going wrong. Everyone is on tenterhooks. Nobody is slacking off. Imagine being in that state of mind, while floating in space on a multi-billion dollar ship, then seeing a gorilla flying towards you, murder in their eyes?

Do you think that perhaps, for the slightest fraction of a split second, these literal astronauts fully believe that the ship is under attack from some kind of space ape? That Planet of the Apes is about to happen in the strangest way possible, and they’re the first line of defence? Thankfully, we don’t have to imagine much else about that interaction because it actually happened during the 46th Expedition to the International Space Station.

For that, we have the mad genius known as Scott Kelly to thank for one of the funniest videos involving an astronaut since Buzz Aldrin punched that moon landing denier.

How did a gorilla end up in Space?

What makes it funnier is that Scott Kelly, even among astronauts, Scott Kelly is particularly legit.

A veteran of the US Navy with 25 years of experience before applying to become an astronaut with his brother Mark in 1995. Both of them were accepted into NASA, and Scott was assigned to his first mission within four years. An incredibly decorated career in NASA followed, one that, in the eyes of the public, completely pales in comparison to a prank he pulled on the equally legendary Tim Peake in February 2016.

Unbeknownst to the rest of his crew, Kelly had a gorilla suit smuggled onto Expedition 46 as part of a care package, reasoning that if you’re going to spend a year on a space station, you might as well have something to lighten the mood outside of work. After their work day was finished, Kelly took the bag the suit was stored in and, unbeknownst to his crewmates, changed into it. After a moment, he launched himself out of the bag, and Tim Peake suddenly found himself with a flying gorilla bearing down on him.

Obviously, Kelly filmed the whole prank, and shortly afterwards, it was released on NASA’s social channels with the absolute best soundtrack possible added in. ‘Yakety Sax‘ from The Benny Hill Show. In Kelly’s own words, “Go big or go home. I think I’ll do both”.

Spectacular work from a true American hero, although one wonders whether a man who trained that hard to be an astronaut, who has been integral in several scientific breakthroughs, would mind being most known for wearing a Gorilla suit?

Honestly? Considering most people think it was his brother Mark that did it, I think he’d be happy just to be credited with it!