From left: Expedition 72 crew members Nick Hague, Don Pettit, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams share a holiday message from the International Space Station.
Credit...NASA

How NASA Astronauts Celebrated Christmas 250 Miles Above Earth

The astronauts on the I.S.S. — including two who were scheduled to return months ago — held a zero-gravity cookie-decorating contest and built a reindeer from storage bags.

by · NY Times

In June, two NASA astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, set out for what was expected to be an eight-day trip to the International Space Station.

On Wednesday — around six months and several spacecraft malfunctions later — they donned Santa Claus hats and wished their families the best from hundreds of miles above sea level as their tenure, which is likely to keep them in Earth’s orbit for at least two more months, stretched on.

Ms. Williams, 59, and Mr. Wilmore, 61, docked at the space station during a test flight of Boeing’s Starliner, which was intended to be a commercial option for ferrying people to and from the station.

But after a spate of malfunctions called the safety of the return flight into question, NASA leaders decided to bring the Starliner to Earth uncrewed, leaving the two astronauts behind until another spacecraft can take them back.

So Ms. Williams and Mr. Wilmore had a chance to participate in the long, strange tradition of celebrating the holidays in space, which began in 1968 when the Apollo 8 astronauts read verses from the Book of Genesis while broadcasting a video of the lunar surface to roughly one billion viewers.

A NASA spokesman said the Starliner astronauts, along with their five fellow crew members, were spending the holidays “enjoying the view of Earth” and “privately communicating with their families” via video call and email.

Ms. Williams and Mr. Wilmore both celebrate Christmas, the spokesman said, but former I.S.S. astronauts have filmed dreidels spinning endlessly in zero gravity and fashioned felt menorahs.

In between their responsibilities in the station, the current crew also made time to cobble together a makeshift reindeer out of spare stowage bags (the body) and brown industrial clips (yes, the antlers). The creation recalls a Christmas tree that astronauts in 1973 made with leftover food containers and cardboard cutouts.

The current I.S.S. crew also staged a cookie-decorating contest with the staff at Mission Control Center in Houston. The astronauts had an unfair advantage: zero gravity.

“It opened up a whole new dimension, quite literally, with layer upon layer of icing,” Nick Hague, a NASA astronaut at the station, posted on social media.

Mr. Hague arrived at the space station in September aboard a SpaceX rocket with two empty seats, which are reserved to bring Ms. Williams and Mr. Wilmore back to Earth next year.

For Christmas dinner, the astronauts sat down to special, prepackaged holiday foods, including turkey, ham, green beans and casseroles.

A recent resupply mission — in which 6,000 pounds of supplies were rocketed from Florida to the I.S.S. — included a package labeled “Holiday Bulk Overwrap Bag” that apparently held lobster, crab and quail.

On Wednesday, a NASA spokesman could not confirm whether any of the items were on the holiday dinner menu.

In keeping with tradition, the astronauts recorded a holiday message to Earth, this time with candy canes floating across the video screen.

“The holiday season is about spending time with friends and family and loved ones,” Mr. Hague said. “This year, we’re going to be in orbit, away from them. We want to send our heartfelt Merry Christmas, and we hope you have a wonderful holiday.”

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