As Crew-10 boarded the the ISS, astronaut Nick Hague donned a Grey alien mask.

Team Replacing ISS Astronauts Finds 'Alien' Onboard

2025-03-16T17:33-07:00

When the International Space Station's new crew arrived on Sunday, they encountered a strange face alongside stranded astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore. However, the figure with gray skin and large black eyes was not from out of this world, but rather NASA's Nick Hague in an alien mask.

Hague arrived to the ISS in September of last year to join Williams and Wilmore, who have been stuck onboard for nine months despite only planning to spend a week in space. A malfunction with a Boeing capsule delayed their initial return, and after Hague successfully docked, another mishap with an emergency pod further postponed their departure.

The exasperated pair, along with Hague and a Russian cosmonaut, will head back to Earth as soon as Wednesday, leaving control of the ISS to Crew-10's new group of researchers.

The "Grey interloper" floating in zero gravity among his fellow astronauts has been a source of amusement on social media. "Are you sure it's a costume?" one user wrote in this post with video showing the moment Hague greeted the new arrivals. Another commenter mentioned how they "appreciate the crew's humor and mission."