International Space Station astronauts show off creative outfits for Halloween

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The NASA-led segment of the Expedition 70 International Space Station crew poses with Halloween costumes on Oct. 31, 2023. Clockwise from lower left: NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, Satoshi Furukawa from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, and Andreas Mogensen from the European Space Agency (ESA). In the background is an image of the International Space Station.
(Image credit: Foreground: Andreas Mogensen/ESA/X. Background: NASA)

The International Space Station crew dressed up in Halloween costumes one day ahead of their next spacewalk.

The four astronauts working in the U.S. segment posed, trick-or-treating style, with costumes in the Japanese Kibo module of the International Space Station on Wednesday (Oct. 31). Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency posted the costumes on X (formerly Twitter) and invited the audience to guess what the crew is wearing.

Two of the astronauts, NASA’s Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli, will then don very different outfits —  spacesuits  —  on Thursday (Nov. 1) for a rare all-woman spacewalk. Coverage is starting at 6:30 a.m. EDT (1030 GMT), which you can watch here at Space.com via NASA Television.

Related: Jupiter has a creepy ‘face’ in haunting Halloween photo by NASA’s Juno probe

Space.com staff did their best at guessing the costumes, but if you have more ideas feel free to share it in the forums (link below the story). Looking at the costumes, clockwise:

NASA’s Moghbeli is wearing a box-shaped costume labeled “bread”, with a picture of herself and her twin girls in front. It’s possible she may be calling herself a “breadwinner” of her family, or that she’s trying to depict a particular flavor like peanut butter-and-jelly with the colors of the costume and of the photo.Satoshi Furukawa from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is wearing a Luigi hat. Luigi is one of the plumber-brother protagonists from Nintendo’s flagship Mario franchise, who in many games battles creatures emerging from sewer pipes. The franchise spans several generations of gaming, alongside tie-ins like toys, theme parks and movies. NASA’s O’Hara wears a Colorado-themed hat, along with a picture of mountains that reads “Go Outside: Never Stop Exploring.” The “go outside” may be a joke related to her forthcoming spacewalk. As for the Colorado connection, O’Hara once told Kansas University that “a lot of my childhood was spent going to the mountains in Colorado and looking at rocks.”ESA’s Mogensen sports a tinfoil hat similar to the type made famous in the 2002 movie “Signs”, a fictional tale of an alien invasion involving crop circles. The T-shirt, “Birds Aren’t Real”, refers to a popular (and likely satirical) Gen Z movement about conspiracy theories, according to Snopes.

Dressing up in costume on the ISS is a long-standing tradition among astronaut crews. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly once made a surprise appearance in a gorilla costume during a 2016 excursion, for example, playfully trying to chase down crewmates in weightlessness.

More recently, in 2022 ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti cosplayed as the famous flight attendant from the 1968 sci-fi flick, “2001: A Space Odyssey.” (That’s the individual, played by actress Edwina Carroll, who slowly walks around a space station hatch until completely inverted in the camera’s view.)

You can also check out Space.com’s collection of Halloween costumes at the ISS over the years, including Elvis, Superman and Darth Vader.

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Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth’s reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, “Why Am I Taller?”, is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada’s Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada’s Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science at several institutions since 2015; her experience includes developing and teaching an astronomy course at Canada’s Algonquin College (with Indigenous content as well) to more than 1,000 students since 2020. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace

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