MERRITT ISLAND, FL — In one of the biggest April Fools’ jokes in decades, NASA is pretending once again to actually be going to the moon.
NASA has reportedly spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the elaborate prank, going so far as to construct a massive fake rocket on the Kennedy Space Center launch pad. As part of the joke, a green-screen video will be aired this evening of the “rocket launch”, featuring a tiny model rocket controlled by strings and employees making explosion sounds in the background.
“I can’t stop laughing about it. How are people still falling for this?” giggled NASA Director Jared Isaacman. “Sixty years later, and this joke is the gift that keeps on giving. You should see the faces the ‘astronauts’ make when they’re pretending to be launching in a rocket ship, they’re so dang funny. I’m all shaking the camera around. It’s honestly hard to believe people are this gullible… I love my job so much.”
Hundreds of NASA employees have contributed to the prank by acting as if they were really working on the Artemis II project. “We’ve been planning this for years,” said NASA scientist Ronald Gregory. “People ask me what I do for Artemis, and I say something ridiculous like ‘Oh yeah, I analyze the cryogenic shrinkage of the fuel tank as it’s being filled with liquid hydrogen.’ I mean, come on… ‘cryogenic shrinkage’? But people somehow buy it! This is going to be the most epic April Fools’ Day ever.”
At publishing time, snickering NASA employees had announced that they would bring the Artemis II home by having it “slingshot” back to earth using the “moon’s gravity”.
Do you think you can guess which one is the terrorist?
