Scott Kelly’s Return Filled With Catching Up (Thanks Stephen Colbert!) and Mysteries (That Jumpsuit!)
We’ve followed Scott Kelly‘s exploits on the International Space Station, watched his return to Earth, and have already begun to hear what NASA has learned from his 340-day stint in space. Now, Kelly has begun to get re-acclimated to being back on Earth. Thankfully, he seems to be getting some help.
One of the first to offer assistance was the ever-helpful (and ever-geeky) Stephen Colbert, who did the following segment on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to fill Kelly in on what he’s missed in the past 340 days:
#AstronautSquadGoals? Yeah, pretty sure Kelly’s met most of those.
It also seems like part of re-acclimating might be having a security blanket in the form of a blue jumpsuit? You know, like the one he’s wearing in the photo at the top of this post? Over at Gizmodo, Maddie Stone points out that, since Kelly has been back on Earth, he always. Seems. To have. It on. Like, always.
So, does this have something to do with the fact that he just got back from space and needs his suit on for scientific reasons? When does that thing get washed? Does Kelly only have the one? Stone got an explanation from a spokesperson at NASA:
Scott Kelly wasn’t wearing the suit when he landed. He was wearing a Russian spacesuit in the Soyuz. He would have changed into the blue suit at some point after he returned to Earth. It does appear he wore the suit for the entire flight back to Houston. The blue suits are basically the astronauts’ “uniform” when they’re involved in operations (as opposed to meetings or working as Capsule Communicators in Mission Control) on the ground. Most often, the public see them in the blue suits when they make public appearances. We don’t know exactly how many suits Scott owns, but astronauts tend to own more than one.
To be honest, it’d be weirder if we suddenly saw Scott Kelly walking around in cargo shorts and a tank top or something.
In any case, welcome back Scott Kelly! We’ll worry about the jumpsuit – you just stay focused on doing science.
(via The Daily Dot, image via NASA HQ Photo/Flickr)
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