The Greatest Prank Ever Pulled In Space Really Fooled NASA’s Mission Control

Life in space is never boring, but it can certainly be a bit serious. Astronauts are there to work, but so far away from home, even leisure time can feel like it's not really relaxing. Some of the astronauts take photographs, others play instruments. There’s Samantha Cristoforetti, who cosplayed in orbit, and Scott Kelly, who dressed up as a gorilla. And then there is Owen Garriott, the greatest prankster who has ever been in orbit.

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Before the International Space Station, NASA had Skylab, the first American space station. There were three missions to Skylab, called, confusingly, Skylab 2, 3, and 4. Garriott was part of Skylab 3, together with Jack Lousma and Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean, the fourth man to ever walk on the Moon. The mission started on July 28, 1973, and it was going to last two months, with the three astronauts keeping a tight schedule of experiments in their floating lab.

There was some drama after launch as one of the modules of their spacecraft developed a leak, and the astronauts developed space sickness for a little while, but their work was crucial for our understanding of the effects of microgravity and more. They even sent two spiders into space, which showed that space-bound webs are not like the ones on planet Earth. But a moment of levity came on September 10, 1973, and this is how Garriott told the story in an interview with NASA’s Oral History project in 2000.

As Skylab comes around in orbit to get into radio communication, all of a sudden this female voice comes on the line, and says, "Hello, Houston, this is Skylab.

The capcom, who happened to be Robert [L.] Crippen, said, "Well, hello, Skylab. Who is this?"

This female voice says, "Hi, there, Bob, this is Helen," my wife at the time.

"What are you doing up there?" Crippen asks.

"Well, we just came up to bring the boys a fresh meal, or a hot cooked meal. They haven't had one for quite a while. We thought they might enjoy that."

He says, "How did you get there?"

 She says, "Oh, we just flew up. We've been looking at those forest fires that they have all over California. It's a beautiful site from up here." The female voices says, "Well, I see the boys are floating in my direction. I've got to get off the line. I'm not supposed to be talking to you. See you later, Bob," and then it goes off.

You can imagine the reaction in mission control. They called to check on the astronauts of Skylab 3 and the wife of one of them – who was clearly not in space – who not only spoke to them but also answered questions and comments about what she saw in orbit!

Neil Hutchinson, one of the flight directors at the time, asked Crippen what was going on, and Crippen could only reply: "You heard it the same time I did. I have no idea. I was just responding to the questions."

So how did Garriott pull it off? Helen’s voice was clearly prerecorded. Garriott planned a script months in advance, thinking of temporary things that might be visible from space, such as wildfires and hurricanes. Helen recorded her lines with different variations of sights and variations of speakers (either Crippen or Karl Henize on Capcom), with appropriate gaps for Capcom to ask the questions.

The true secret to getting mission control confused was to have a plant there that could match Helen’s prerecorded performance. Well, not just one: two. Both Crippen and Henize were in on the prank, though it was Crippen who delivered such a convincing performance that for a quarter of a century baffled NASA. Only in 1998 did Garriott give away his secret.

“They never figured it. So we had fun with that.”

If any joker astronaut is planning to deliver a prank, know that this is the bar to aim for.