Christmas and New Year are happy occasions frequently enjoyed with family and friends. But, have you heard of Christmas in Space? Since the Apollo mission, when the Apollo 8 crew is renowned for reading aloud from the Bible’s Book of Genesis as part of their astronaut Christmas Eve greeting during a live television transmission in 1968, astronauts have made it a practice to observe holidays in Space.
A SpaceX Cargo ship carrying holiday treats and experimental research landed Wednesday morning at NASA‘s International Space Station, just in the time of celebration of Christmas. The epidemic may have altered how the holidays appear this year, but they will still occur – even in outer Space. The international crew consists of Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency, Raja Chari of NASA, Dr. Thomas Marshburn, Pyotr Dubrov, and Kayla Barron of the Russian Space Agency.
NASA Uploaded an Astronaut Christmas Video on Twitter
Happy Holidays from the @Space_Station!@NASA_Astronauts Frank Rubio, Nicole Mann, Josh Cassada, and JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata share some of their favorite holiday traditions from back home, and a few from space. pic.twitter.com/BH7RsE85an
— NASA’s Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) December 21, 2022
In a special NASA Christmas holiday video uploaded by NASA, Barron remarked that even if they are up here this year, they enjoy the space family. The astronaut Christmas team appeared together for a special supper and made calls to their loved ones back home to catch up with them. Additionally, they welcomed the New Year together. They were fortunate to be able to visit so many nations since they could travel quickly from one side to the other. It genuinely fosters a sense of global solidarity among all people. Every moment we see the dawn, frequently throughout the day, Chari said that they get to reflect on just the reality that individuals are getting up to a new year. Several of the experimental research landed on the cargo vehicle excite Maurer.
The First Thanksgiving in Space
Astronauts participate in an extraordinary Christmas celebration party more than 200 miles above the Earth’s surface. On November 22, 1973, Skylab 4 astronauts Gerald P. Carr, Edward G. Gibson, and William R. Pogue each ate two meals at dinnertime, commemorating the first Thanksgiving ever to be observed in Space. The three were involved in and assisted in a space mission that lasted six hours and 33 minutes earlier in the day.
As missions become longer and more frequent, holidays in space become more common occasions.
Learn more about how crews have celebrated the holidays on the @Space_Station over the past 22 years! https://t.co/8sXgcW1YE9
— NASA’s Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) December 24, 2022
The Space Station runs on Greenwich Mean Time. Each day, the crew sees 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets as they travel at a speed of 17,500 miles per hour around the planet.
