The crew of the space station celebrated a multidenominational Christmas this 12 months, hanging stockings for Santa alongside a menorah “lit” with pretty felt flames.
The menorah was brought aboard the International Space Station by NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli and adorned with a felt flame each night when Hanukkah, the Jewish festival, ran earlier this December. Felt was chosen as a fabric for the menorah because of comprehensible restrictions concerning lighting fires on spacecraft and space stations.
“My husband and little girls helped make a felt menorah, with lights for every night, that I can pin on to have fun with them. So I’m excited to try this,” Moghbeli, the second Iranian-American to achieve space, said during a press conference in July, as Space.com previously reported.
The NASA astronaut added that in the course of the festive season here on Earth, her family celebrates each Hanukkah and Christmas, just as she was in a position to do in orbit this 12 months.
Related: NASA astronaut will have fun Hanukkah in space with felt menorah
Moghbeli, who also celebrated Hanukkah in space by spinning a dreidel earlier in December, sent season’s greetings from the ISS to everyone back home on Earth, clearly missing celebrating the vacations with family.
“Merry Christmas from the space station,” the NASA astronaut and ISS flight engineer wrote on her X feed, formerly Twitter.
“While I especially miss my family and friends back home this time of 12 months, I would not trade the unique memories I’m making with my space family. We’ve found little ways to make the vacations feel like the vacations up here. Later today, we’ll all share a vacation meal and decorate cookies together.”
Merry Christmas from the @Space_Station!While I especially miss my family and friends back home this time of 12 months, I wouldn’t trade the unique memories I’m making with my space family. We’ve found little ways to make the vacations feel like the vacations up here. Later today,… pic.twitter.com/lZygRVTWiqDecember 25, 2023
Moghbeli celebrated the vacations with the remainder of the Expedition 70 team currently occupying the ISS, including commander Andreas Mogensen from the European Space Agency, flight engineers Satoshi Furukawa (Japan) and Loral O’Hara (NASA), and Roscosmos or Russian flight engineers Konstantin Borisov, Oleg Kononenko, and Nikolai Chub.
The astronauts took Christmas Time without work to open presents and revel in a Christmas dinner, following a busy week that saw two cargo spacecraft depart the ISS (SpaceX Dragon and Northrop Grumman Cygnus). The crew watched the 1989 slapstick comedy “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”, and O’Hara celebrated the arrival of her nephew, the NASA astronaut posted on X.
Christmas 2023 weekend – one for the books.Friday, the Expedition 70 crew and ground team alike got our collective wish for 2 cargo ships to depart space station before the vacations. NG-19 was released midday carrying all our trash from the past six months, and can orbit… pic.twitter.com/OXkxh8YSFtDecember 26, 2023
The Christmas stockings chosen by the present ISS crew may not have been quite as festive as those hung in houses across Earth over Christmas 2023, taking the shape of grey and black thermal socks.
The crew was in a position to add a bit of festive cheer to those barely drab thermal sock stockings by donning Santa hats that stand straight up, because of the microgravity experienced by the ISS in low Earth orbit roughly 250 miles (400 kilometers) about our planet.
The Expedition 70 crew journeyed to the ISS aboard a Soyuz spacecraft (MS-23) on Sept. 27, and is ready to return to Earth in spring 2024. Expedition 70 commander Mogensen also sent Christmas greetings home ahead of his return to terra firma.
“As we orbit high above Earth, I need to send warm wishes to all of you down on Earth on this big day. Whether you are celebrating Christmas or just having fun with the festive spirit, may this special time bring you joy along with your family and friends,” he wrote on X.
“Here on the space station, we now have the twenty fifth of December off to have fun Christmas, where we share special food, chill out, and open packages from our families that got here up with the last cargo vehicle.
“As we mark today in space, may you have got a completely happy holiday season.”