Astronaut Wears 'Alien' Mask to Greet SpaceX Crew at the International Space Station

Talk about an out of this world greeting!

On Sunday, March 16, as SpaceX and NASA's Crew-10 astronauts arrived at the International Space Station ahead of Crew-9's return home, some friendly space hijinks ensued.

In footage shared by the International Space Station on X, Ivan Vagner, a Russian cosmonaut, donned an “alien” mask as his fellow astronauts – including NASA's Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who are about to head home after 9 months on space – prepared to welcome the new crew.

A NASA spokesperson confirmed Vagner was the wearing the mask during the "lighthearted moment" in a statement to Fox News Digital,

NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers as well as mission specialists JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov arrived at the ISS on 12:04 a.m. EDT on Sunday, March 16, on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, NASA confirmed in a news release. 

They're part of SpaceX and NASA's Crew-10 mission to bring Wilmore and Williams home. NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who have been in space since September, will also be joining Wilmore and Williams on their flight back home. 

The crew’s arrival came after they took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:03 p.m. on Friday, March 14.

Over the next few days, NASA said there will be a “crew handover period” as the astronauts make arrangements to return home safely.

“Following Dragon’s link up to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module, the crew members aboard Dragon and the space station will begin conducting standard leak checks and pressurization between the spacecraft and the station in preparation for hatch opening scheduled for approximately 1:45 a.m. on Sunday,” the agency said in its news release.

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“Crew-10 will join the Expedition 72 crew of NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Don Petitt, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Aleksandr Gorbunov, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner. The number of crew aboard the space station will increase to 11 people before Crew-9 members Hague, Williams, Wilmore, and Gorbunov return to Earth following the crew handover period,” NASA said.

The Dragon launch was initially supposed to take off on March 12, but a hydraulic issue delayed the flight.

Wilmore and Williams first landed at the ISS in June 2024 and intended to stay in space for no more than 10 days. However, following mechanical issues with their spacecraft, they were delayed and the spacecraft was sent back to Earth without them weeks later.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct various identifying and background details about the SpaceX mission and the astronauts on the ISS.