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Surrounded by floating sweet canes and a makeshift snowman made out of stowage luggage, the astronauts aboard the International Space Station gathered collectively to want a Merry Christmas to everybody again on Earth.
Expedition 72 commander Sunita “Suni” Williams, sporting a pair of festive reindeer antlers, joined fellow NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore, Don Pettit and Nick Hague to share some vacation cheer from their dwelling away from dwelling, 260 miles (420 kilometers) above the planet.
“It’s a good time of 12 months up right here,” Williams mentioned in a video recorded on Monday (Dec. 23). “We get to spend it with all of our household up on the International Space Station. There’s seven of us up right here, and so we will get to take pleasure in firm collectively.”
In addition to the 4 NASA astronauts, the station’s crew additionally contains Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and Aleksandr Gorbunov of Russia’s federal house company Roscosmos.
“In Christmas time, the vacation season, it is about spending time with family and friends and family members. This 12 months, we will be in orbit away from them,” mentioned Hague, who’s scheduled to return to Earth in March. “We’re not the one ones which might be going to spend time away from our households over the vacations. There’s an enormous group on the bottom that is going to help us in mission controls across the globe.”
“I wish to thank them for the sacrifices that they are making collectively. We work hand-in-hand with the bottom each day and over the vacations, we preserve this mission going,” he mentioned.
The floor groups ready a particular vacation meal for the station’s crew, which Pettit gave a fast preview of within the video.
“Christmas is synonymous with meals and feasting. And boy do we’ve got a feast packaged up right here,” he mentioned.
In addition to the meals and treats, the crew even have a small synthetic Christmas tree and ornaments adorned with their households’ pictures.
Hague, Pettit and Wilmore donned Santa caps for the message, with Wilmore, a Tennessee native, stretching his over a cowboy hat. Wilmore can also be an ordained minister and religious Christian, main him to remind everybody concerning the spiritual facet of the vacation, as effectively.
“And, in fact, Christmas is Christ. Hallelujah, a savior is born,” mentioned Wilmore.
The astronauts closed out their message with a easy, “Merry Christmas!”
If you are planning to search for on the night time sky this vacation, our Christmas night time sky information has tips about the best way to see Venus and different planets. And if you happen to’re extra historical past minded, take a look at our Star of Bethelehem information as astronomers debate what it could have been.
