Clock: When ISS astronauts celebrated Christmas in space and Santa paid them a visit

by

Although this year’s Christmas holidays have been shut down around the globe due to the pandemic, the festive joy has managed to spread into outer space. The astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) not only celebrated Christmas aboard the space station, but also sent a message about human endurance back to Earth.

All seven members of the ISS Expedition 64 crew took their day off into orbit to relax, but five of them aired some special videos for everyone on Earth. Talking about how the pandemic changed lives, they greeted the human spirit and talked about how they celebrate Christmas, showing the gifts received through special deliveries.

Even though the crew took their day off, they pointed out that the mission control team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston works 24 hours a day and will work every day during the holiday break and made a special cry. .

The ISS international team includes NASA astronauts Kate Rubins, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover Jr. and Shannon Walker; Astronaut Soichi Noguchi of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency; and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Ryzhikov.

According to tradition, they adorned the ISS with holiday decorations made with objects found around the station and displayed it, prompting the mission control crew to create holiday decorations made only from materials found in the building. Wearing a festive red-green Christmas jacket, Scoville replied, “Challenge accepted!” before adding “You may have to cut the coat and turn it into something new later.”

Holiday spirits were evident in the video messages, as SpaceX Crew Dragon pilot Victor Glover showed off his socks – printed to order with photos of his family members – and Japanese aerospace exploration engineer Soichi Noguchi shared a gift Early Christmas for the team – a box of mackerel made by a group of schoolchildren. “This is a small, small mackerel box, but a huge leap for Japanese high school girls,” Noguchi joked, pointing to the gift.

And since the Christmas festival is incomplete without Santa Claus, for the first time, astronauts on the ISS received a special visit from a strange spaceship – powered by a reindeer and carrying an old and cheerful elf. North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI) have unveiled a new video of Santa Claus flying by the station for the festival.

“For the first time, the FAA has issued Santa a special commercial space license for a manned mission to the International Space Station using its StarSleigh-1 space capsule powered by the Rudolph rocket,” the FAA said in a statement. “Let’s face it, 2020 was a difficult year and we could all use a special holiday joy that only Santa can offer,” she added.

Earlier, they took some time to send home a message of “resistance” during a particularly difficult holiday season, again explaining the meaning of the name they gave to the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that launched four of the astronauts to the space station in November. .

Away from home and family on Earth, for the past 20 years astronauts have spent their vacations at the International Space Station (ISS) and each year, they have immortalized the events by adapting newer ways to enjoy festivities in outer space.

.Source