On Christmas Day 2024, NASA astronauts Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, and their crew-mates, celebrated the holiday aboard the International Space Station, hundreds of miles above Earth.
In June, NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore embarked on a mission to the International Space Station, originally planned to last eighty days.
On Wednesday, December 25, 2024, about six months later, these two astronauts put on Santa hats and sent best wishes to their families hundreds of miles above Earth. Their extended stay, now expected to continue for at least two more months, began with a test flight of Boeing’s Starliner, designed as a commercial vehicle to transport people to, and from, the International Space Station.
But after a series of malfunctions that had elevated the risk of coming back to Earth, NASA decided to bring back the Starliner to Earth, unmanned, leaving Williams and Wilmore behind for another spaceship to take them back.
So the two astronauts participated in the unique traditions of celebrating holidays in space, which started in 1968, when the Apollo 8 astronauts read verses from the Book of Genesis live, while sharing the surface of the moon with about 1 billion viewers.
A NASA spokesperson stated that the Starliner astronauts, together with their five team members, were spending their holidays “enjoying the view of Earth” and “privately communicating with their families” through video calls and email per the New York Times.
Williams and Wilmore both observe Christmas, but previous I.S.S. crew members have celebrated other customs, like spinning dreidels endlessly and making felt menorahs. Between responsibilities on the spaceship, the current astronauts also made a makeshift reindeer with stowage bags and brown industrial clips.
The current I.S.S. crew held a cookie-decorating contest with the members at the Mission Control Center in Houston. The astronauts, however, had a distinct advantage: zero gravity. One of the astronauts that was up in space, Nick Hague, said, “The competition quickly melted away as we all played around and discovered the range of possibilities for icing in zero-g. It opened up a whole new dimension, quite literally, with layer upon layer of icing. And in the end, they tasted even better than they looked!”
For Christmas dinner, the astronaut feasted on a selection of special prepackaged festive meals, featuring turkey, ham, green beans, and casseroles.
“The holiday season is about spending time with friends and family and loved ones,” Mr. Hague said. “This year, we’re going to be in orbit, away from them. We want to send our heartfelt Merry Christmas, and we hope you have a wonderful holiday.”