Star Wars, Elvis haunt the ISS on Halloween

Star Wars, Elvis afraid the ISS on Halloween

Cosplay in spaaaaaace!

The crew of the International Space Station is in the Halloween mood with a trio of out-of-this-world costumes. European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst tweeted photos of the shenanigans on Wednesday, saying the crew was having “a scary day in space.”

Cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos is employed on his hip-shaking rock’n’roll moves as Elvis Presley, undone with wig, sunglasses, stick-on sideburns, guitar and an upturned jumpsuit collar. Gerst is hiding inside the Star Wars Darth Vader outfit when wielding a lightsaber. 

NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor, a physician, donned a lab coat she has up in orbit and added some goggles and a patch with a head and crossbones design. The outfit makes her look like a mad doctor or mad scientist.

The costumes are part of a enormous tradition of dressing up in space. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly spooked us out with a creepy mask in 2015. ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti posted a selfie as Star Trek captain Kathryn Janeway back that same year. And, oh yes, there’s a gorilla suit on the ISS.

There are only three crew members on boarding the ISS right now after a failed Soyuz Begin earlier in October. They are continuing with their science duties, but still have enough spare time to celebrate Halloween in style.