International Space Station turns 20 0:51
(CNN) -
The end of the year festivities may look a little different this year due to the pandemic, but they will still be celebrated ... even in space.
The International Space Station will host seven crew members over the Christmas season, the most for the orbiting lab in its 20 years of having humans live on board.
The international crew includes NASA astronauts Kate Rubins, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover Jr., and Shannon Walker;
the astronaut of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Soichi Noguchi;
and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Ryzhikov.
The international crew will sit down for a special meal together.
Team members will also call home to speak with friends, family, and loved ones.
SpaceX launch: four astronauts take off aboard Crew Dragon bound for the International Space Station
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"I am very happy to be on the space station this year because I can share American traditions with my international crewmates," Walker said in November.
"The year 2020 is difficult, but it is also the year of perseverance and the year of resilience and I really hope that each of you cherish every moment with your friends and family," Noguchi said in November.
(The names of SpaceX Crew-1's Perseverance rover and Resilience capsule, both launched this year, seem even more meaningful to the crew during the pandemic.)
Christmas off Earth
Astronauts have marked the tradition of celebrating the end of the year festivities in space since the days of the Apollo mission.
So the Apollo 8 crew shared their Christmas Eve message on a live television broadcast in 1968, taking turns reading the Book of Genesis in the Bible.
How these holidays are marked and celebrated is up to each individual crew, and space veterans tend to share tips and ideas with newbies before getting on board, NASA astronaut Dr. Andrew Morgan told CNN.
Morgan spent the entirety of the Christmas season on the space station in 2019 alongside fellow crew members Jessica Meir, Christina Koch, Alexander Skvortsov, Oleg Skripochka, and Luca Parmitano.
In the days leading up to that celebration, Morgan and her team played Christmas music throughout the station and screened classic Christmas movies to create a festive atmosphere.
The team also used a projector with a recording of a burning Christmas log to make it look like they had a cozy fireplace at the station, he said.
Given the international nature of their crew, they actually celebrated Christmas twice: Christmas on December 25 and Russian Orthodox Christmas on January 7.
Meir displayed her Hannukah socks on the dome.
Meir is Jewish and marked Hanukkah's passage on the space station, tweeting images of her holiday socks, but she also grew up celebrating Christmas and joining in the season's festivities.
Planning Christmas Gifts in Space
If your idea of planning ahead is to buy Christmas gifts on Black Friday, it is very different for astronauts who think ahead about their space mission if it includes vacations.
"We had to think a year or more in advance to make sure we were buying, packing and keeping these gifts a secret all the time," Morgan said.
Russian astronauts conduct major 1:16 spacewalk
Morgan knew that Parmitano enjoyed a special Russian delicacy called chocolate cheese, which is essentially a thick chocolate fudge, so Morgan saved something to include with Parmitano's gift.
Morgan also gave each crewmate a harmonica in their sock so they could have a harmonica band on board.
The crew shared a Christmas message and serenaded their mission control centers around the world with a chorus of "Merry Christmas" by John Lennon and "Merry Christmas" by José Feliciano, all while wearing matching festive striped pajamas. .
Morgan missed his family and thought about the traditions he would normally share with them.
One of his favorites is spending Christmas Eve alone by candlelight.
He grew up with this tradition and continues it with his family to this day.
International Space Station.
When he woke up on Christmas morning on the space station, all the lights on the modules were off, which is normal while astronauts are asleep.
But Koch had taken little lanterns and covered them with gold-colored tape to make them look like little lit candles.
They were everywhere: in the lab, the crew rooms, the kitchen where the crew eat.
"When I saw that, I was filled with nostalgia," Morgan said.
“It made me think of missing my family at Christmas, but also of considering Christina's gesture.
She had paid attention to that little detail, and it was extremely significant.
It is one of the many memories that I cherish from my time in space.
station".
Many happy New Years
The space station operates on Greenwich Mean Time to stick to a schedule.
The crew witness 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets each day as they orbit the Earth at 27,000 kilometers per hour.
So when it comes time to say "Happy New Year," the team has plenty of opportunities to celebrate.
They make calls to each mission control when the New Year arrives in their time zone.
The New Year is a much more important holiday than Christmas for the Russian crew, so the entire crew came together to enjoy a great meal and toast the year ahead.
But the other great tradition is to watch a Russian movie, which, when essentially translated, means "The Irony of Fate."
The 1976 Soviet romantic comedy television movie has "a slightly strange plot about a gentleman who gets so drunk that he ends up in Leningrad and doesn't know how he got there," Morgan said.
It is a cultural phenomenon to see the film on New Years Eve in Russia, so it is played in the Russian segment to honor the tradition.
"Experiencing that with our Russian crewmates was very special," Morgan said.
“That exchange of those traditions and experiencing the vacations of others and sharing that with others in an international team, that will be what I take away from that experience.
It represents all that is good about international cooperation and the exchange of traditions in different countries.
International Space Station turns 20 0:51
Celebrating in isolation
While astronauts typically have the ability to email, video conference, and make phone calls, they have a bit more time to do so so they can connect with family during celebrities.
In 2020, it's also the way that families and friends connect as they move away socially to stay safe.
"While it's not perfect, we still have a lot to be thankful for," Morgan said.
"We have the technology available to be a part of each other's vacation experiences even though we are so far apart, whether it's across states, oceans, or from low Earth orbit."
It's their first Thanksgiving house since 2018. While they typically host astronauts and cosmonauts in Houston who are visiting for training, they can't this year.
Morgan said the key to enjoying this holiday season is similar to how astronauts celebrate in space - with planning, intention and consideration.
Connect with people you haven't contacted in a while, be deliberately thoughtful, and make small gestures that have a big impact, Morgan said.
Before going into space, Morgan collected photos of her friends and family.
In space, he took them to the dome, where Earth is visible from the space station, and took photos of their loved ones with Earth as the backdrop.
It was something simple, although it required some planning, but it brought joy to those you love.
Morgan also shared his wish for the current crew of the space station, as well as everyone on Earth.
"As the holidays are living apart from their loved ones, so are most of the people on this planet right now," Morgan said.
But that separation is finite.
The crew will return and reunite, this pandemic will pass and we will all come together as human beings.
International Space Station