See how astronauts on the International Space Station celebrated Halloween this year
We will also show you how they enjoyed it in previous years
In addition to Halloween, other holidays such as Christmas are also celebrated on the ISS
Although we have All Souls here today and we tend not to celebrate its American version of Halloween, this holiday is very important in English-speaking countries. Children dress up as ghosts, vampires or princesses and go caroling from house to house asking for sweets. The elders, after dressing up in various Halloween costumes, go to a party where they watch horror movies.
However, we will not deal with how Halloween is celebrated on Earth. We will see how they experience it on the International Space Station, roughly 400 km above the Earth’s surface. If something important went wrong there, the astronauts will certainly have more terrifying memories of it than of any horror movie.
Halloween on the International Space Station
This year, NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara, along with Satoshi Furukawa of the Japanese Space Agency and European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, celebrated Halloween aboard the ISS.
And it was Mogensen who reported about it on the X network, renamed Twitter. “Can you guess who we are disguised as?” he added to the photo. According to her, he changed clothes for bread. Loral O’Hara is wearing a T-shirt that says “Go outside: Never stop exploring,” were not “Go outside: Never stop exploring.This could be an allusion to her ascent into space, which was to take place the following day.
Happy Halloween from the International Space Station 🎃
Can you guess who we are dressed up as?
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Happy Halloween from the International Space Station 👻
Can you guess who we’re dressed as? #Huginn #Halloween #space #iss pic.twitter.com/kAbb9xXKr8
— Andreas Mogensen (@Astro_Andreas) October 31, 2023
Furukawa wears a green hat worn by Luigi, a character from the popular Super Mario video game series by the Japanese company Nintendo. Mogensen’s disguise is apparently a dig at the Gen Z conspiracy theory “Birds aren’t real,” which says that birds don’t actually exist and are drones used by the US government to spy on individuals. He added a tinfoil hat to the crazy conspirator’s outfit, which, according to the conspirators, effectively protects against harmful 5G networks. Even in space, it can apparently hit him, what with the fact that here he is no longer protected by the earth’s atmosphere, so he is threatened by much more dangerous radiation.
Costumes from previous years
However, in previous years, the astronauts had their costumes far more elaborate than this year. In 2009, for example, American astronaut Nicole P. Stott won big with her costume. She even carved a pumpkin, although in her case it was more of an orange.
Italian astronaut Luca S. Parmitano fulfilled his wish to fly as Superman in 2015. Back then, Scott J. Kelly’s spooky disguise was also on board.
Luca S. Parmitano as Superman on Halloween 2015 Scott J. Kelly’s Spooky Costume
Superheroes were not missing on the ISS even two years later, in the form of Spiderman Paolo A. Nespoli or Batman, who was portrayed by the American cosmonaut Mark T. Vande Hei.
A photo of the astronauts together on Halloween 2017, including Paolo A. Nespoli as Spiderman and Mark T. Vande Hei as Batman
What about Christmas?
The ISS is famous for allowing space travelers to properly enjoy holidays like Halloween or Christmas even though they are far from home. They traditionally give each other gifts and try to make the time spent together in space more pleasant.
A levitating Christmas tree in the glass space of the ISS
NASA also, among other things, in the run-up to Christmas makes sure that even the astronauts can enjoy traditional food, despite the demanding conditions on the station. Popular dishes are frozen and specially packaged to last. And in 2015, the astronauts even brought a Christmas tree, which levitated beautifully in the glass area of the space station.
Author of the article
Matyáš Hřebík
Enthusiast for mobile phones, smart home and artificial intelligence. In my free time, I like to swim, ride a bike, ski or create websites.
2023-11-02 18:30:00
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