Holidays in Space: An Astronaut Photo Album

The holidays might be time for joy or reflection on Earth, but the same is true for space. See how astronauts mark the holidays away from family and friends for months at a time in this Space.com gallery. HERE: Italian astronaut Samantha Christoforetti floats with Christmas decorations, including stockings hung with care, on the International Space Station to celebrate Christmas in space in December 2014.

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 50 Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson of NASA sent holiday greetings and festive imagery from the cupola window on Dec. 18, 2016.

The first American Christmas holiday aboard a space station occurred in 1973 during the Skylab 4 mission to the first American space station Skylab. The station’s three-man crew saved up their food cans to create this space Christmas tree.

All six members of the Expedition 50 crew aboard the International Space Station celebrated the holidays together with a festive meal.

Christmas stockings for the six-man Expedition 34 crew decorate the International Space Station in December 2012. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield snapped this photo: “Our stockings are hung by the Node 3 hatch with care, in hope that St Nicklaus has a big red spacesuit.”

Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the Moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968. The three astronauts aboard, Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders, made a live television broadcast in which they sent Christmas greetings back to the Earth. Above, an image of the Earth taken near the moon during Apollo 8.

The Expedition 50 crew, made up of Robert S. Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson of NASA; Andrei Borisenko, Sergey Ryzhikov, and Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos and ESA’s Thomas Pesquet, opens a few gifts during their 2016 Holiday Celebration.

During their 2016 Christmas Dinner, Expedition 50 crewmembers don the ISS with some festive decorations as well.

This still from a NASA video shows the only Christmas holiday mission by a space shuttle crew. The astronauts of NASA’s STS-103 mission in December 1999 visited the Hubble Space Telescope for a repair flight and donned Santa hats to mark the Christmas holiday in space.

A close-up of the space station Christmas tree, snapped by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield during the Expedition 34 mission in 2012.

The Expedition 50 crewmembers where hats from NASA’s Peggy Whitson during their 2016 Holiday Party.

The six-man crew of the International Space Station (including a bearded Father Christmas) wishes Mission Control a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays on Dec. 25, 2012, during the Expedition 34 mission.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, commander of Expedition 26 aboard the International Space Station, poses for a holiday photo near the station’s miniature Christmas tree.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station show off their Christmas dinner. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson sends a package of dehydrated mashed potatoes floating in microgravity while holding packets of cider and hot cocoa. NASA astronaut and ISS commander Shane Kimbrough holds packages with turkey, fruit salad, green beans and potatoes. French astronaut Thomas Pesquet looks on in a weightless Santa hat.

ISS Expedition 16 commander Peggy Whitson (right) and flight engineer Dan Tani wish viewers a happy Thanksgiving on NASA TV while preparing for a Nov. 24, 2007 spacewalk.

Expedition 42 Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore of NASA tweeted a photo of the foods he and his fellow astronauts will enjoy on Thanksgiving aboard the International Space Station. Tweet posted Nov. 26, 2014.

A Thanksgiving decoration, as seen in space in November 2001, on board the International Space Station.

NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer celebrated 2017’s Fourth of July in space on the International Space Station with a stars-and-stripes photoshoot.

NASA astronauts Jack Fischer and tried a variety of poses in their stars-and-stripes gear to celebrate Independence Day 2017.

The hands of NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins, Expedition 38 flight engineer, hold a Thanksgiving meal in the Unity node of the International Space Station. Photo dated Nov. 28, 2013.

Members of the STS-129 crew share a meal while on the space station. The scene on Thanksgiving day will be similar onboard space shuttle Atlantis.

In the Mars500 mock spacecraft, Romain smiled happily with a cardboard Christmas tree and stockings full of presents.

Astronaut Leroy Chiao, Expedition 10 commander and NASA ISS science officer, poses with holiday decorations in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station.

Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi floats through the passageway from the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft into the International Space Station shortly after docking Dec. 22, 2009.

As NASA astronaut Dan Burbank, Expedition 30 commander, talks to JSC’s Mission Control Center, his live picture appears on a screen at the front of the facility. Flowers, adorning a console in the foreground, were sent by the Shelton/Murphy families for Thanksgiving in honor of the station crew members and the flight control team. The North Texas residents have been sending flowers to Mission Control since the first post-Challenger mission — STS-26 — in 1988

NASA astronaut Kevin Ford holds a packet of smoked turkey that will up part of the space station crew’s Thanksgiving feast on Nov. 22, 2012.

Astronaut Luca Parmitano of Italy tweeted this photo of himself dressed as the Man of Steel for Halloween on Nov. 1, 2013. He humorously poked fun at his resemblance to a famous arch-villain as he wrote, “Lex Luthor’s dream … #Halloween 🙂 pic.twitter.com/kuyBoRDkQI”

America’s unofficial holiday is Super Bowl Sunday. Space station commander Michael Fincke gives the Pittsburgh Steelers a thumbs up in support of their NFL playoff game.

American astronauts Doug Wheelock, Tracy Caldwell Dyson (center) and Shannon Walker, all NASA spaceflyers and Expedition 24 flight engineers, pose for a photo with an American flag while aboard the International Space Station during their summer 2010 mission.

American astronauts Douglas Wheelock (left), Shannon Walker (center) and Scott Kelly record a Thanksgiving holiday video message from their home on the International Space Station on Nov. 23, 2010.

A Thanksgiving day meal fit for an astronaut: NASA-packaged smoked turkey, cornbread dressing, strawberries, tea w/sugar and as-flown cranberry sauce spread.

ISS Expedition 12 commander Bill McArthur holds a pack of smoked turkey, Thanksgiving dinner aboard the International Space Station.

A look at the Thanksgiving dinner of smoked turkey, stuffing, green beans and mushrooms and other treats for the STS-126 crew of shuttle Endeavour on Nov. 27, 2008.

NASA astronaut Kevin Ford holds a packet of smoked turkey that will up part of the space station crew’s Thanksgiving feast on Nov. 22, 2012.

NASA astronaut Dan Burbank catches a floating can of cranberries on the International Space Station just before Thanksgiving.

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson dons a Santa hat and Christmas socks in weightlessness to celebrate the holidays on the International Space Station on Dec. 22, 2016.

ESA’s Thomas Pesquet and Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos have a cookie decorating contest during the 2016 ISS Holiday Party.

NASA astronauts Michael Fincke (right) and Sandra Magnus send holiday wishes to Earth in a video message.

Astronauts Michael Fincke, Expedition 18 commander, and Sandra Magnus, flight engineer, hold Christmas cookies while posing for a photo near the galley in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station.

Expedition 42 Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore of NASA tweeted a photo of himself with food (in packages) for a Thanksgiving meal aboard the International Space Station. Tweet posted Nov. 26, 2014.

Caption: Cmdr. Barry “Butch” Wilmore holds up freeze-dried cornbread stuffing — one of the Thanksgiving food items he and the rest of the International Space Station crew will enjoy this week.

NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins, Expedition 38 flight engineer, holds a Thanksgiving meal in the Unity node of the International Space Station. Photo dated Nov. 28, 2013.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield strums a guitar while playing Christmas carols and gazing at Earth from the International Space Station in December 2012.

Expedition 16 commander Peggy Whitson (left) and flight engineer Dan Tani discuss plans for their fourth spacewalk and the holidays during a Dec. 13, 2007 video links.

Getting all ten members of an aggregation consisting of seven Endeavour astronauts and three Expedition 18 crewmembers into a single photo wasn’t easy as the two crews shared a Thanksgiving meal on the middeck of the orbiter. Astronaut Sandra Magnus, Expedition 18 flight engineer, appears at top center. Clockwise from her position are astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Eric Boe, along with cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov, and astronauts Steve Bowen, Donald Pettit, Michael Fincke, Gregory Chamitoff, Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Chris Ferguson.

Following a space-to-Earth press conference on Nov. 21, 2008, members of the International Space Station and Space Shuttle Endeavour crews posed for a group portrait on the orbital outpost. Astronaut Donald Pettit appears at photo center. Just below Pettit is astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshin-Piper. Clockwise from her position are astronauts Shane Kimbrough, Steve Bowen, Eric Boe, Chris Ferguson and Michael Fincke, along with cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov, and astronauts Sandra Magnus and Gregory Chamitoff.

Christmas is not the only holiday astronauts have celebrated in space. Many American and international holidays are also celebrated off the planet. Here, astronauts Nicole Stott and Jeff Williams show off some tasty food for Thanksgiving on the International Space Station.

The Expedition 26 crew of the International Space Station pose for a photo on New Year’s Eve to ring in 2011. Clockwise from the left are Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka, NASA astronaut Catherine (Cady) Coleman, Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri, all flight engineers; NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, commander; Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli, both flight engineers.

A Russian Soyuz rocket launches the Progress 27 cargo ship toward the International Space Station on Dec. 23, 2007 to deliver fresh supplies, birthday gifts and Christmas presents.

The unmanned Progress 27 cargo closes in on the International Space Station’s Pirs docking port carrying Christmas gifts and other supplies during its smooth Dec. 26, 2007 docking.

The failure of Russia’s robotic Progress 65 cargo mission on Dec. 1, 2016 didn’t endanger the six crewmembers of the International Space Station’s Expedition 50 (seen here celebrating Thanksgiving on Nov. 24, 2016), NASA officials said.

Super Bowl Sunday may as well be a holiday, and even astronauts do their part. The STS-129 astronaut crew presented the space-flown flip coin to NFL officials at the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Jan. 27, 2010. The coin was used to decide the start of Super Bowl 44 in South Florida.

A “Tournament of Roses” rose, seen here with astronaut Rex Walheim, floated in Earth orbit in February 2008 before riding on a float in the 2009 Rose Parade.

The 6-man crew of the Mars500 mission, a 500-day simulated mission to Mars, poses for a fun photo on Chinese New Year in February 2011.