NASA accidentally broadcast footage of him stripped to his shorts for a scrubdown and it left half-a-million Earthlings starry-eyed as his muscular physique was on full display
Astronaut Victor Glover was dubbed ‘Buff Lightyear’ – after he was caught on camera taking a ‘space shower’. NASA accidentally broadcast footage of the hunky hero stripped to his shorts on the Artemis II mission to the Moon.
And the pilot’s muscular physique left folk back on Earth seeing stars. The live feed from inside the Orion spacecraft showed the 49-year-old American scrubbing himself with a ‘hygiene towel’ – a space wet wipe – after exercising.
Mission Control in Houston, Texas, cut the images just as Glover was cleaning his feet after realising the broadcast was revealing more of the astronaut than planned. But it was too late to stop him becoming a space sex symbol.
Replays of the 105,000-mile high shower scene got more than half a million views back on Earth. One female fan messaged: “Omg Astronaut Victor Glover is so physically fit. Please let him exercise a lot.”
Another said: “It’s Buff Lightyear!!!!” One more posted a muscle emoji, adding: “One rep for a man, a whole set for mankind.”
Another said the spaceman was ‘too sexy for his shirt’, adding: “Ladies, please, he’s a married man.” With a wink emoji they added: “But I understand.”
Mission Control operator Christina Birch cut the live feed and told the crew: “Courtesy call, not knowing your preference, we did have a video of Victor which we have stopped going out.”
Commander Reid Wiseman replied from the spacecraft: “We appreciate that. We were definitely good with it going out but we also understand if you want to restrict. No problem either way.”
California-born Glover, a US Navy captain selected to be a NASA astronaut in 2013, is making history by becoming the first black man to journey towards the Moon. He and wife Dionna have four daughters.
The mission is being closely watched by legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin, 96, the second man to walk on the Moon after Neil Armstrong as part of the Apollo 11 crew in 1969. His filmmaker pal Steven Barber said: “He’s giddy about it all and kept saying, ‘Now it’s time to occupy Mars!’
“You could see the joy in his eyes. He told me he was glad we were going back. He said, ‘This is fantastic. They are following in our footsteps. It is long overdue’.
The four-strong crew is scheduled to reach its destination 6,000 miles above the Moon later today. They plan to make an historic lunar fly-by during which they will take photos and video footage of the dark side of the Moon losing communication with the Earth for up to 50 minutes.
But they continue to be beset by toilet trouble. The Orion’s space loo – which seized shortly after lift-off – is still causing a stink.
Astronaut Christina Koch reported a ‘burning heater smell’ coming from the bathroom which is buried in the floor of the capsule with a door and curtain for privacy.
Engineers suspect ice may be blocking the vent line that flushes wee overboard.
On Saturday flight turned the Orion toward the Sun hoping the extra warmth in addition to the capsule’s heaters would melt the frozen line.
Until the lav is fixed mission control has instructed the astronauts to wee into back-up urine collection bags.