In Brief

Mystery 'Astronaut' Sighting on UK Beach Solved (Video)

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It's not every day you see someone in an astronaut spacesuit randomly walking on the beach. But apparently that's what Kent beachgoers in the United Kingdom found during a jaunt to Margate Beach last weekend, as Yahoo Screen explains in the video above.

According to Yahoo Screen's Broken News Daily, the mystery astronaut was not a lost space traveler, but actually Sam Way, a British model, actor and singer, who was out taking a stroll on the beach in a spacesuit to record a music video for the song "TV Dinner" by the band Elephant. Photos of Way in his astronaut garb sparked major Internet buzz over the weekend, with Way ultimately clearing it up on Twitter, where he posts as @IAmSamWay.

"Spaceman. The man in the suit is me," Way wrote on Monday (Sept. 29). "It's gone viral." But Way apparently did try to warn his fans of his impending spacesuit caper. On Saturday (Sept. 27), he posted a photo of himself wearing a spacesuit helmet with a simple message:

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Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.