While billions of people celebrate the Christmas holiday on Earth, ten people aboard two space stations will spend the time floating hundreds of miles above the planet’s surface.
China’s Tiangong is reported to have a crew of three, while the International Space Station is the temporary home for seven people from the U.S., Japan, Denmark and Russia.
The ISS astronauts make up the same crew that was in space during America’s Thanksgiving, meaning all will have spent the entire holiday season living more than 250 miles above Earth’s surface.
Commander and European astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli recently released a holiday video with the message, “The ISS represents the best in all of us.”
The astronauts wished their families on Earth a happy holiday season and had messages for the planet.
“The IAC represents the best in all of us as individuals and in our countries and in humanity. I think it’s beautiful to look down on Earth and to have that perspective that we get to have up here. I know it inspires all of us, and I hope it inspires all of you on Earth as well,” O’Hara stated.
HOW ASTRONAUTS CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING IN SPACE
The seven astronauts and three cosmonauts are expected to spend the final days of 2023 doing research and keeping the ISS operational.
On the actual holidays of Christmas and New Year’s, the crew will be able to relax, open gifts and call their families back home.
Some of the research being completed includes experiments with workout programs, material flammability and 3D printing.
Any spacewalks or future spacecraft arrivals will occur well into the new year, and additional astronauts are expected to arrive aboard a private mission in mid-to-late January at the earliest.
SEE THE OBJECTS HUMANS LEFT BEHIND ON THE MOON
The Axiom Mission 3 is expected to liftoff from Florida in January with a crew of four.
The Ax-3 private mission will use a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and spend a couple of weeks in space before returning back to Earth.
Replacements for the ISS crew of seven are not expected to start arriving until February.
SpaceX Crew-8 will consist of three NASA astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut and will launch on a Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Since 2000, there has been a continuous human presence in space, which has resulted in many holidays being celebrated above Earth’s atmosphere.