In 2010, Cady Coleman spent Christmas Day as far away from hearth and home as is humanly possible – and she loved every moment of it.
Indeed, for an astronaut, the chance to be one of only 688 people to take their turn in space, in her case orbiting Earth onboard the International Space Station, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
‘We’ve trained for years, we’ve been at NASA for years. To be able to finally get to the Space Station and do the work that we’ve prepared for makes it all worth it,’ Coleman, 63, told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview.
Even if that means missing Christmas.
That’s why, she says, American astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been stranded in space for more than six months, are likely thrilled to be stuck more than 250 miles above their families.
The astronauts were launched onboard Boeing’s new Starliner crew capsule to the ISS on June 5 for what was intended to be an eight-day mission. But after the capsule encountered a cascade of thruster issues and helium leaks, NASA decided the vessel was too compromised to send it back to Earth with a crew.
Now a SpaceX rescue mission set for February has been pushed back to late March 2025. So after spending Thanksgiving in low Earth orbit, they’re celebrating Christmas in space and facing a total of nine months in the ISS.
In 2010, Cady Coleman spent Christmas Day as far away from hearth and home as is humanly possible – and she loved every moment of it. (She is pictured here aboard the ISS).
American astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore (pictured) were launched onboard Boeing’s new Starliner crew capsule to the ISS on June 5 for what was intended to be an eight-day mission.
But, says Coleman, it’s not as dire as it sounds – there are plenty of ways to celebrate in zero gravity. (Perhaps, slightly unhinged optimism is a necessary trait in such a dangerous profession.)
‘About two weeks into my mission, I woke up and realized it actually was Christmas morning,’ Coleman, 63, writes in her book, ‘Sharing Space,’ recalling the ‘moments of childlike delight’ she felt ‘almost every single day.’
Coleman told the Mail that she climbed out of her tiny cabin – about the size of a phone booth – to discover that even the bleakness of space couldn’t deter Santa Claus (Really her cosmonaut companions).
She found small bags of chocolate taped to her door.
‘There was usually no chocolate on the ISS, and this was really good Russian chocolate, which made the surprise even more special,’ she said of the gifts left by the three Russians onboard.
Her ISS-mates celebrated Greek Orthodox Christmas, which falls roughly two weeks after December 25, so the gesture was particularly touching to the American.
The Russkies also gifted Coleman and two other astronauts onboard – fellow American Scott Kelly and Italian Paolo Nespoli – T-shirts with snowmen and their initials printed on them.
What? No Vodka?
Apparently, that is frowned upon when operating a $3 billion per year piece of equipment.
‘There’s [also] no wine on the space station,’ said Coleman. ‘Next time I get to space, I’ll go to a French space station,’ she joked.
The Russkies gifted Coleman and two other astronauts onboard – fellow American Scott Kelly (top) and Italian Paolo Nespoli (left) – T-shirts with snowmen and their initials printed on them.
For the astronauts, who are only apportioned six shirts every six months, a fresh garment is an exhilarating present.
‘When the Russians gave us a new shirt, we were very, very excited,’ Coleman said.
This all might seem, to those constrained by gravity, a poor substitute for Coleman’s normal Christmas routine – waking up in her lakeside upstate New York vacation home with her glass-artist husband and their two boys – but astronauts are cut from a different cloth.
There were no Norway spruces or Douglas firs, but the astronauts did set up a two-foot-tall artificial Christmas tree to keep their spirits high.
Ceramic baubles hardly fit within the three-pound weight allowance that each astronaut is allotted for personal belongings, but Coleman managed to bring along some glass ornaments that her husband had crafted to liven up their space tree.
‘On Earth, the solid glass spheres would have weighed down every branch. But in space, they danced weightlessly around the tree, majestic and beautiful,’ she wrote in ‘Sharing Space.’
Throughout the day, the astronauts took turns floating the tiny Tanenbaum around the ISS so they could show it to family members during their Christmas Day video conference calls.
Usually, these family conference calls would take place once a week, but astronauts were permitted more conversations for the special day.
‘I got to talk to everybody, they passed the phone around,’ Coleman remembered and, despite being interstellar, she insists she felt extremely close to her family at that moment.
‘I always felt very connected to the Earth, and when I looked down that day, I kind of felt like I was celebrating Christmas with them,’ she says.
One thing she did have to forego was a traditional Christmas meal: ‘My expedition didn’t have special food. We weren’t a crew that was incredibly passionate about food.’
There was no freeze-dried turkey, and certainly no champagne toast.
In between the family video chats, the crew watched classic Christmas movies that had been digitally delivered by satellite.
In her book she noted: ‘Toward the end of my stay on the ISS, one of my crewmates joked (half seriously) that he’d like to go home sooner than planned. Without even thinking, I said, “I’ll stay!” I would spend another six months here in a minute.’
‘I always felt very connected to the Earth, and when I looked down that day, I kind of felt like I was celebrating Christmas with them,’ Coleman says. (Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is pictured docked to the International Space Station’s forward port).
In her book she noted: ‘Toward the end of my stay on the ISS, one of my crewmates joked (half seriously) that he’d like to go home sooner than planned. Without even thinking, I said, “I’ll stay!” I would spend another six months here in a minute.’
Tell that to Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.
‘I know Suni and Butch. Suni’s husband says: ‘Space is Suni’s happy place.’ I know she loves being up there and you can see it from the expressions on both of their faces,’ Coleman told the Mail.
‘I think they’re happy to be there, doing their job,’ she says.
NASA says the stranded astronauts are ‘in good health,’ despite widespread public concern about their physical well-being. But Coleman believes people are sensationalizing their conditions.
She says it’s a normal occurrence of extended space trips and that she lost 12 pounds because the space food is not great – and they are usually too busy to eat much.
Thinking back on her own mission, Coleman says, ‘I really loved it there.’
With that in mind, she tells the Daily Mail of Williams and Wilmore: ‘For their mission to be extended – I think – is actually amazing.
‘I never say that they’re stuck.’
