Zero-gravity cookies and Santa space suits: Here's what it's like to spend Christmas on the International Space Station
Despite being stationed in a cramped space station in zero gravity, astronauts manage to celebrate Christmas with most of the traditional trappings.
NASA
- There are often astronauts in the International Space Station over Christmas, and this year is no exception.
- Despite being posted to a cramped space station, they still manage to celebrate Christmas with most of the traditional trappings.
- That means Santa space suits
- If they're lucky they get the day off as well.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
No one likes spending Christmas at work - but sometimes there's just no getting out of it. For example, if you are stationed in orbit 250 miles above the planet.
But despite being as far away as it's humanly possible to get from Earth - where Christmas was invented - astronauts aboard the International Space Station manage to keep their workplace pretty festive. They festoon the station with decorations, put up Christmas trees, open presents, and even get Christmas dinner.
The crew currently aboard the ISS shared a holiday video with the world on December 22. The astronauts, four of whom arrived in November aboard the SpaceX spacecraft "Resilience," said they'd named the craft after the people who helped get them up there in a year of unprecedented challenges.
"There couldn't be a more fitting name to describe 2020, the resilience of the human spirit is something we can truly celebrate in this special season," NASA astronaut Victor Glover said.
—International Space Station (@Space_Station) December 22, 2020
Here are some amazing moments from the many Christmases which have been celebrated aboard the ISS.
NASA/Scott Kelley
Astronauts may not be able to pick their own real fir tree, but for years they've been bringing up fake ones and adorning them with tinsel and decorations.
Over the decades astronauts have sometimes had to improvise.NASA
This Christmas tree is fashioned from empty food containers, and was made by three astronauts aboard the ISS on the Skylab 4 mission in 1973.
For years astronauts have been decorating Christmas cookies in zero-gravity.NASA
In November this year a specially designed "space oven" was shipped to the astronauts on the ISS to experiment on the impact intense heat and zero-gravity would have on baking cookies, however NASA confirmed that the astronauts will only be baking five experimental cookies in this oven and will not eat them.
The astronauts get Christmas dinner.NASA
It's impossible to prepare a full roast meal on the ISS, but astronauts still get an approximation of a Christmas dinner.
For Christmas 2018 crew members got a meal of smoked turkey, candied yams, corn, green beans, mac and cheese, and potatoes au gratin. This was followed by dessert options of strawberries, bread pudding, butter cookies, and shortbread cookies.
This feast was shipped up to the astronauts a few weeks ahead of Christmas aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
A NASA spokesperson sent Business Insider a list of what's on the menu for the ISS crew this Christmas.Butterball Turkey
The main course for the astronauts' Christmas meal includes:
- Roasted Turkey
- Jellied Cranberry Sauce
- Macaroni and Cheese
- Potatoes Au Gratin
- Southwestern Corn
- Spicy Green Beans
- Cornbread Dressing
- Wheat Flat Bread
And for dessert...
- Cherry Blueberry Cobbler
- Cranapple Dessert
- Shortbread Cookies
- Sparkle Gel
- French Vanilla Cappuccino
The astronauts' Christmas meal was shipped up to them aboard the SpaceX CRS-21 spacecraft on December 6 (along with some meteorite samples and live mice).
Last year the astronauts were sent gingerbread men, some of which ended up floating around in zero gravity.NASA
NASA
NASA
Presents from the astronauts' families are shipped up to the ISS ahead of Christmas day. Their families have to be organized, sometimes sending presents up as early as November to coincide with cargo ships travelling to the station with new supplies and science experiments.
This year's batch of Christmas presents and food was brought up by another SpaceX Dragon ship on December 8.
It's not just their families that give them gifts - the astronauts also get presents for each other.In 2014 US astronaut Terry Virts tweeted that he'd got a harmonica from Russian cosmonaut Elena Sorova.
—Terry Virts (@AstroTerry) December 25, 2014
Santa Claus hats are another staple, as exemplified in this photo of astronaut Scott Kelly (2010).
NASA
NASA
NASA
NASA
NASA
Virts and his team also left some "powdered milk and freeze dried cookies" for Santa according to ABC — although without a chimney, they had to settle for leaving them by the airlock.
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is famous for his orbital musical renditions, and Christmas is no exception.
NASA
This photo was taken on Christmas day 2012, and according to NASA Hadfield later joined the rest of the crew for an "assortment of Christmas carols."
Sometimes astronauts get the day off, but not always.In 2018 two out of the three crew members got the whole day off, while a third had to carry out a few odd jobs. "The only tasks on their schedule for Xmas besides meals and exercise are some blood and saliva sample draws for human research studies," a spokesperson told Space.com.
Sometimes the astronauts have more serious Christmas duties to attend to. On Christmas Eve 2013 NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio ventured outside the ISS on a space walk to fix a broken cooling system.
This year NASA confirmed to Business Insider the astronauts onboard will get to take Christmas day off work.
Even though the ISS might lack a few home comforts, being in space is a pretty unique way to spend the holiday.Astronaut Anne McClain shared what it feels like to look down on the Earth at Christmas time during her stay on the station in 2018.
—Anne McClain (@AstroAnnimal) December 23, 2018
And in 2014 Terry Virts tweeted a video of what he called the ISS' version of Christmas lights.
—Terry Virts (@AstroTerry) December 25, 2014