Astronauts and cosmonauts, cramped in small cabins and in micro-gravity in the International Space Station, celebrate Christmas as much as they can, sending live messages to families, loved ones and colleagues on Earth.
They even manage a dinner without alcohol. Alcohol is not allowed in space.
In the Chinese Space Station, Tiangong, it is more like any other day because Christmas is not a public holiday in Mainland China. Most Chinese are not Christians.
In the ISS, those celebrating do their best to make the festival memorable.
By 2024, 14 astronauts and four cosmonauts have died in spaceflight.
This is apart from the Apollo 1 launch pad fire which killed its crew of three in pre-flight training in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 27, 1967.
Astronauts take real risks. Space enthusiasts still remember the US space shuttle Challenger that blew-up 73 seconds after lift-off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, killing all seven astronauts on board on January 28, 1986.
One of the persons on board was schoolteacher, Christa McAuliffe, who was to give lessons from space to children to stimulate their love for science.
The children were left devastated and traumatized after her death in the accident which was watched live on television.
Another terrible space flight disaster was that of the US space shuttle Columbia which disintegrated as it re-entered the Earth, killing all seven astronauts on board, on February 1, 2003.
From the Russian side, three cosmonauts aboard the Soyuz 11 spacecraft died on June 29, 1971, as their capsule depressurized after undocking from the world’s first space station, Salyut 1, where they had a 23-day stay.
They are technically considered the only fatalities in space, occurring above 100 kilometres (330,000 feet) from the ground.
Before then, there was the first fatality in spaceflight: the death of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov on 24 April,1967, when the parachute in his Soyuz 1 spacecraft failed to deploy properly on atmospheric re-entering, hitting the ground at high speed.
Astronauts, cosmonauts and taikonauts continue space expeditions because they feel the risks are worth it for the advancement of knowledge and the love of space science.
The first Christmas celebration in space was by the Apollo 8 astronauts: Commander Frank Borman; Command Module Pilot, Jim Lovell; and Lunar Module Pilot, Bill Anders, while orbiting the Moon for the first time.
On Christmas eve 1968, they broadcast live on television. They also read the Book of Genesis 1: 1 – 10 from King James version of the Bible:
Bill Anders (Genesis: 1: 1 – 4)
- ‘We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
- Jim Lovell (Genesis 1: 5 – 8)
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
- Frank Borman (Genesis 1: 9 – 10)
And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
- And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas – and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.’
This attracted a law suit by the founder of American Atheists, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, in a Texas court for violating the First Amendment. The case was dismissed and went on appeal and was dismissed again and up to the Supreme Court which declined to review it.
The first Christmas in the International Space Station, ISS, was by the crew of Expedition 1 who arrived ISS on November 2, 2000.
Since then, Christmas has been celebrated every year in the ISS.
But it is not always blissful. The crew of Expedition 30, on 24 December, 2013, had to install a new ammonia pump for the ISS cooling system and endured noxious ammonia gas in the exercise.
They still managed to have their Christmas celebration after.
Astronauts respect religion and culture and are given off-duty accordingly.
The Catholic Church and Protestant denominations, using the Gregorian calendar, have their Christmas on 25 December; while the Russian Orthodox Church, using the Julian calendar, have their Christmas on 6 or 7 January, every year.
Merry Christmas!
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Thanks for sharing. Never knew astronauts celebrate Christmas in space. Who knows, one day we might find ourselves in space celebrating with them.