"Jewel in the Night:" Original Music and Pictures from a Space Station Christmas

By Nancy Atkinson - December 26, 2012 at 7:56 PM UTC | Space Exploration
hadfield-guitar.jpg

If you celebrate Christmas here on Earth, you may have a tree, stockings, and music. The crew on the International Space Station had those as well. Now in space as a member of the Expedition 34/35 crew, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield continues to share his experiences via social media,

as he did during all of his training

. Before his flight, Hadfield said he would be recording music on the ISS, and above is his first recording from the ISS, a song he wrote titled "Jewel in the Night." Listen closely, and you can hear the slight buzz of the station's fans in the background.

Below are pictures from the ISS crew's holiday celebration:

"Music on High - playing Christmas carols while floating over the eastern Mediterranean. Miraculous," Tweeted Chris Hadfield.

"Our tree is up – on the ceiling! The beauty of a weightless Christmas," said Hadfield

"Our stockings are hung by the Node 3 hatch with care, in hope that St Nicklaus has a big red spacesuit," said Hadfield via Twitter.

See more images and keep track of Hadfield's mission via his

Twitter

and

Facebook

pages.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com