New laboratory data of ethyl mercaptan, CH 3 CH 2 SH, in the millimeter and submillimeter-wave domains (up to 880 GHz) provided very precise values of the spectroscopic constants that allowed the detection of gauche-CH 3 CH 2 SH towards -2 -Orion KL. 77 unblended or slightly blended lines plus no missing transitions in the range 80 -280 GHz support this identification. A detection of methyl mercaptan, CH 3 SH, in the spectral survey of Orion KL is reported as well. Our column density results indicate that methyl mercaptan is ≃ 5 times more abundant than ethyl mercaptan in the hot core of Orion KL.1 This work was based on observations carried out with the IRAM 30-meter telescope. IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany) and IGN (Spain). 3 Hollis, J. M.; Remijan, A. J.; Jewell, P. R.; Lovas, F. J.; Corby, J. F.