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Christmas in Space
New Mexico Museum of Space History
In 1998, Science@NASA conducted an exclusive interview
with Santa Claus at his secret North Pole workshop.
Although he was in the midst of final preparations for
his annual around the world ride, Santa took a break and
talked about his plans for reaching out beyond earth as
humankind begins to inhabit other worlds.
In a direct quote from the famous interview, Santa said,
"The Moon won't be too much of a challenge. I figure the
lunar colonies will keep Earth time, so I'll just add
them to my route. The reindeer will gripe about having
to put on spacesuits, but we'll get used to it."
"Mars is going to start to stretch us a bit. See, it
takes 687 days to go around the Sun. That's about two of
our Earth years. So every other year I'll have two
Christmas runs to make, the Earth-Moon run and the Mars
run. We'll really have to 'haul Rudolph,' as the
reindeer are fond of saying. Fortunately, a Martian day
is 37 minutes longer than an Earth day, so we can still
do our usual overnight delivery. Some of the planets
have much shorter days than Earth!”
So far, Santa has not had to worry too much about other
world delivery on Christmas Eve, as only a few
individuals have actually spent Christmas in space. The
first men to have an “out of this world” holiday were
Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell
and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders aboard Apollo 8
in 1968. They sent Christmas greetings and live images
back to their home planet and read from the Book of
Genesis. Borman closed the message with the words "good
night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all
of you -- all of you on the good Earth." It is estimated
that as many as one billion people watched the historic
broadcast or listened on the radio.
In 1973, The Skylab 4 crew was the next set of
astronauts to spend Christmas in space. To give
Commander Gerald Carr, Pilot William Pogue and Scientist
Edward Gibson made a Christmas tree with food cans. In
1996, 22 years later, American Astronaut John Blaha
celebrated the holiday in orbit aboard the Russian Mir
space station in 1996. Now, each year, at least two
people spend Christmas in space aboard the International
Space Station.
Join the New Mexico Museum of Space History staff and
volunteers November 19, 2007 through January 6, 2008 as we celebrate
“Christmas in Space”. Featuring video footage, candid
holiday photos from space and the inspiring stories of
those who were privileged enough to enjoy the season
from the heavens, “Christmas in Space” will celebrate
the yuletide season from the outside looking in.
The New
Mexico Museum of Space History is a division of the NM
Department of Cultural Affairs. Admission to the museum
is $3.00 for adults, $2.75 for seniors and military
personnel, $2.50 for children four to twelve years old,
and under four free. For more information, call
505-437-2840 or toll free 1-877-333-6589 or visit the
website at
www.nmspacemuseum.org
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