The Holiday Season in Space
Astronauts who board the International Space Station usually spend months working and living there before they return home to Earth. This means that their time spent on the space station tends to overlap with various holidays, and yes, sometimes even Christmas, Hanukah and Kwanza! Have you ever wondered how astronauts in space celebrate the holidays when they are away from their family and friends?
The first Christmas in space happened over 50 years ago aboard Apollo 8! Since 1968, many more men and women have spent time in space over the holidays. Last year, four members on the ISS celebrated with a special meal of smoked salmon!
The First Christmas in Space
In 1968, Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders became the first humans to orbit the Moon on Christmas Eve. They were also the first astronauts to spend Christmas in space!
Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, launched on December 21, 1968, and entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts aboard held a live broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they displayed pictures of the Earth and the Moon as seen from their spacecraft. They ended the broadcast with the crew taking turns reading from the book of Genesis.
It is estimated that as many as one billion people watched the historic broadcast or listened to it on the radio. Watch the broadcast below for yourself!
Skylab 4
The Skylab 4 astronauts built a Christmas tree from empty metal food containers. Photo Credit: NASA
The second time Christmas was celebrated in space was five years after Apollo 8. Skylab 4 would be the third and final mission to the Skylab space station. The Skylab 4 crew consisted of Commander Gerald P. Carr, Pilot William R. Pogue, and Science Pilot Edward G. Gibson. The crew spent a total of three months in space. Their mission overlapped with the holiday season and the crew ended up celebrating Christmas aboard Skylab! A week later, they also became the first to celebrate New Year’s Eve in space.
On Christmas Day, Astronauts Carr and Pogue stepped out of Skylab’s airlock, and worked outside in the void of space for seven hours and one minute. To make the Skylab space station more festive, the crew constructed a Christmas tree with leftover food cans. What a way to spend Christmas!
Spending the Holidays in Zero Gravity
It would take 22 years after Skylab 4 before another American would spend Christmas outside Earth's atmosphere. Astronaut John Blaha celebrated the holidays in orbit aboard the Russian Space Station Mir in 1996. His was joined by crew mates Russian Cosmonauts Valery Korzun and Alexander Kaleri.
A few years later in 1999, NASA astronaut and member of the STS-103, Michael Foale, was aboard the first and only space shuttle mission to fly during the holiday. Astronaut Foale and his STS-103 crew mates were able to give NASA a pretty great gift for the holiday season. After three consecutive days of spacewalks to make repairs and upgrades, they returned the Hubble Space Telescope to service on Christmas Day! Hubble had previously been out of order since the loss of its fourth gyroscope, designed to enable the telescope to point precisely at distant astronomical targets for scientific observations. After Hubble was fixed, each of the seven STS-103 crew members, which included astronauts from the United States, France and Switzerland, called down holiday wishes from space in several languages.
Hanukah in Space!
Jewish astronaut, medical doctor and electrical engineer, David Wolf has spent more than 4,040 hours in space. During the 168 days he spent outside the Earth’s atmosphere, Wolf has celebrated Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Chanukah in space! He even brought a menorah… that he couldn’t light due to fire hazards… and a dreidel with him! “I probably have the record dreidel spin” he once said, “it went for about an hour and a half until I lost it. It showed up a few weeks later in an air filter. I figure it went about 25,000 miles.”
Astronaut Jeff Hoffman, professor of aerospace engineering at MIT, also brought along a menorah and dreidel on one of his journey’s into space. He shared this cool video with us at the Discovery Center about celebrating Hanukah aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor during NASA Mission STS-61. Thanks, Dr. Hoffman and NASA!
The Holidays on the International Space Station
The first Christmas aboard the International Space Station took place in 2000 and was celebrated by the Expedition 1 crew. Astronaut Bill Shepherd and Cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev spent a laid back Christmas Day opening gifts and talking to their families back on Earth. Since then, many more crews have spent Christmas on the International Space Station. Expedition 4 celebrated the season with turkey and other traditional holiday foods, and Expedition 6 crew assembled and frosted a cake shaped like a candy cane. With the help of Santa and a space shuttle, gifts were even delivered to the Station!
Photo Credit: nasa
In 2004, Astronaut Leroy Chiao, Expedition 10 commander and NASA ISS science officer, posed with holiday decorations in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station.
Photo Credit: nasa
On the first night of Hanukkah, December 22, 2019, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir tweeted a photo of her feet in some festive blue, neon green and purple socks, complete with menorahs and the Star of David. "Happy Hanukkah to all those who celebrate it on Earth! #HappyHanukkah," Meir's tweet read.
And finally, last December, NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station reminisced about their favorite holiday traditions as they spent the season away from family and friends. Expedition 61 Commander Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and NASA Flight Engineers Christina Koch, Jessica Meir and Drew Morgan wore Santa hats and reindeer ears and filled their gravity-defying red stockings full of gifts sent to them from Earth. For a special treat they enjoyed smoked salmon and fruitcake.
How will Expedition 64 and SpaceX Crew-1 celebrate the holiday season this year? We will have to wait and see!
