Galactic Joy: Embracing the Holidays Among the Stars

Members of the crew aboard the International Space Station commemorate the holiday period in an extraordinary manner while residing and performing their duties at the orbiting laboratory. Each crew member, comprising the current Expedition 72, takes time to relish the view of Earth from the space station, maintains private communication with their loved ones, and shares a collective meal with their fellow expedition members, all while continuing with experiments and station upkeep.

As the inaugural crew to celebrate Christmas in space and exit Earth’s orbit, Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders commemorated the holiday while orbiting the Moon in December 1968. The crew observed Christmas Eve by reciting opening passages from the Bible’s Book of Genesis while broadcasting visuals of the lunar landscape beneath them. It is estimated that around one billion viewers across 64 nations tuned in to the crew’s transmission.

In 1973, Skylab 4 astronauts Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, and William Pogue marked Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s in space, becoming the first crew to celebrate the harvest festival and usher in the new year while in orbit. The crew constructed a homemade tree from leftover food containers, adorned it with colored decals as decoration, and topped it off with a cardboard cutout resembling a comet. On December 15, 1973, Carr and Pogue undertook a seven-hour spacewalk to replace film canisters and observe the passing Comet Kohoutek. Once back inside the space station, the crew indulged in a festive dinner replete with fruitcake, communicated with their families, and exchanged gifts.

Following the launch of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope into Earth’s orbit in 1990, a space shuttle crew was dispatched on a mission, STS-61, to service the telescope. In 1993, NASA astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman celebrated Hanukkah after completing the third spacewalk of the servicing mission, using a traveling menorah and dreidel for the festivities.

Continuing to support another servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope, the STS-103 crew celebrated the first Christmas in space aboard Discovery in 1999. NASA astronauts Curtis Brown, Scott Kelly, Steven Smith, John Grunsfeld, and Michael Foale, along with ESA (European Space Agency) astronauts Jean-François Clervoy and Claude Nicollier relished duck foie gras on Mexican tortillas, cassoulet, and salted pork with lentils. On December 24, 1999, Smith and Grunsfeld carried out repairs on the telescope during a spacewalk, and at least one American astronaut has celebrated Christmas in space every year since then.

In November 2000, the arrival of Expedition 1 crew members, NASA astronaut William Shepherd, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev aboard the International Space Station signified the commencement of a sustained human presence in space. As the pioneering crew to celebrate the holiday season at the laboratory outpost, they initiated the custom of reading a goodwill message to those on Earth. Shepherd honored a naval custom by composing a poem as the first entry for the new year in the ship’s log.

For over 24 years, NASA has facilitated a continuous U.S. human presence onboard the International Space Station, where astronauts have discovered how to inhabit and function in space for prolonged durations. As NASA backs missions to and from the station, crew members have persisted in celebrating the holidays in space.

Expedition 70 flight engineer NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli’s spouse and daughters crafted a felt menorah for her to celebrate Hanukkah during her mission. Since astronauts cannot ignite real candles in the space station, Moghbeli pinned felt “lights” for each evening of the eight-day festival. A dreidel spinning in a weightless environment will keep on spinning until it meets another object but cannot settle on any of its four sides. Expedition 70 crew members recorded a holiday message for those on Earth.

The International Space Station serves as a synthesis of science, technology, and human creativity that allows research impossible on Earth. This orbiting laboratory is a launchpad for developing a low Earth economy and for NASA’s next significant advancements in exploration, including missions to the Moon under the Artemis initiative and ultimately, human exploration of Mars.

For more festive memories aboard the International Space Station, visit:

To discover more about the International Space Station, its research, and its crew, at:

Media Contacts:

Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
claire.a.o’[email protected]

Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
[email protected]