Merry Christmas... in orbit!

Whether you believe it or not, Father Christmas does not forget astronauts despite the obvious lack of a chimney...

 

Expedition 22 currently aboard the ISS did not forget Christmas and the New Year. During a video link with space agency officials on 23 December 2009, Oleg Kotov, T.J. Creamer, Jeffrey Williams, Soichi Nogichi and Maxim Suraev wore festive hats! Credit: NASA

NB: this text was initially published as a Latest News article. It has been transferred to the Feature section so that it can be read over a longer period of time.

Celebrating Christmas or the New Year during a space mission? This might seem a little out of place. And yet, astronauts do indeed celebrate end of year festivities in orbit, during their rest periods obviously. What’s more, such moments of relaxation based on shared customs are beneficial to team cohesion.

Apollo 8’s Christmas
The most unusual Christmas in orbit was very probably that of the Apollo 8 mission; if only because it took place in orbit around the Moon! This was in December 1968, right in the middle of the race to the Moon. Uncle Sam’s secret services were afraid that the Russians would beat NASA to the post due to the preparation of the N1 rocket which was comparable to the American Saturn V. The objective of Apollo 8 was, therefore, to send 3 astronauts as quickly as possible to orbit the Moon several times without landing. Commander Frank Borman and his colleagues, James Lovell and Williams Anders, actually reached their destination on 24 December. To humorously confirm the success of the manoeuvre, Frank Borman sent a radio message to Houston saying that “there is a Santa Claus”. Then, a little later, during a live televised link, the three men read a chapter from Genesis before the Commander sent the crew’s best wishes to all the Earth’s inhabitants. There was no doubt that Borman, Lovell and Anders thought that such a reading was suited to 24 December and that the passage chosen (the creation of the Universe) was sufficiently consensual so as not to offend anyone. And yet, an American atheist militant took out a highly mediatised lawsuit against NASA, as she believed that the Government agency had violated the constitution by favouring one particular religion on the pretext that Genesis came from the Bible. The case was, however, to be dismissed by the United States Supreme Court. Below is the Apollo 8 crew’s reading of the text from Genesis.



Celebrations and secrets
With long-duration flights aboard orbital stations, manned missions are more and more extending over the end of the year periods. In the beginning, improvisation prevailed as is shown by this Christmas tree made in 1973 by the third crew of the American Skylab Station using tins of food.

The Skylab Christmas tree put together by astronauts Gerald Carr, William Pogue and Ed Gibson in December 1973. Credit: NASA

This period is avoided as far as the space shuttles are concerned, but sometimes it cannot be helped! In 1999, the Hubble space telescope was in danger as its gyroscopes were breaking down one after another. There was a risk that control of this precious orbital observatory would be lost, which would be tantamount to losing the billions of dollars invested in the programme. Hence, NASA organised the emergency space shuttle flight STS-103. Discovery blasted off on 20 December, heading towards the damaged telescope with 7 astronauts on board, including Frenchman Jean-François Clervoy and the Swiss Claude Nicollier, both from the European Space Agency. Having successfully completed the mission objectives, the 7 men were, with mission control’s blessing, able to celebrate Christmas in space. Claude Nicollier had thought to bring a good ration of Swiss chocolates, as a tribute to his country. Enjoy Space contacted Jean-François Clervoy as regards this space Christmas. He told us that the Christmas meal consisted of duck liver pate on Mexican tortillas and two French specialities, “cassoulet” (haricot bean stew) and “petit salé aux lentilles” (salted belly of pork with lentils).

The crew of space shuttle mission STS-103 celebrated Christmas in space. Top row from left to right: Americans Steven Smith, Michael Foale and Curtis Brown (Commander), and Frenchman Jean-François Clervoy. Bottom row, from left to right: the Swiss Claude Nicollier and Americans Scott Kelly and John Grunsfeld. Credit: NASA

The astronaut has an excellent memory of these festivities as well as a word of advice as regards our future: “Christmas in space, is a chance to meditate on the life and birth cycle. In our spaceship, we are like seeds sent out into space, sowing future generations who will continue to explore ever further into the depths of the Universe, as with the oceans, searching out answers to our future”. Jean-François Clervoy also confided to us that Father Christmas came and paid them a visit, “we don’t know which entrance he used, no-one ever knew who he was — it was the crew’s secret”; a way for the astronauts to maintain a private dimension to this orbital Christmas. You can find further anecdotes in Jean-François Clervoy’s excellent book entitled: “Histoire(s) d’Espace” (Space Stories) (see this Enjoy Space article).

No New Year in space for the space shuttle
However, the American space shuttle is forbidden from spending New Year in orbit. Engineers prefer space shuttles to be back on the ground when the year changes on their onboard computers... True, it has never been proved that this changeover could perturb the computers, but there is also no point in tempting the devil. The STS-103 mission also had the added fears linked to the year 2000 bug. Consequently, space shuttle Discovery was to land back on Earth on 28 December 1999.

Americans Michael Fincke and Sandra Magnus, together with the Russian Youri Lonchakov from Expedition 18 in 2008 can be seen showing off their dehydrated food packages, especially designed so that they could cook dishes suited to Christmas and New Year celebrations. Credit: NASA

However, New Year celebrations, and the slightly earlier ones for Christmas, are part of a well established tradition on board the International Space Station. Specific accessories are even sometimes anticipated such as a small Christmas tree, garlands and hats as well as Christmas stockings, ready for the presents. Festive food is on the menu and meals less nutritional than usual (the astronauts’ diets are very carefully monitored for medical reasons) are the order of the day. We therefore come across the Mexican tortillas that Jean-François Clervoy mentioned for STS-103. But don’t think that the men and women in space, in this specific case, go out of their way to break with traditional recipes. The tortilla is chosen, in actual fact, because it produces considerably less crumbs than bread. As said crumbs would quickly spread around the station due to the weightless conditions, they could provoke respiratory problems if they were inadvertently breathed in...
So, it is clear that the top space priorities remain the success of the mission and the safety of the astronauts, right down to the smallest of details, even culinary ones.

Published on 24 December 2009
Discover the photographs based on this subject in our portfolio

Enjoy Space would like to thank Jean-François Clervoy for his answers and the photographs that he passed on to us.