22-Year-Old Video Of NASA Astronaut Dancing Bihu In Space Goes Viral After Assam CM Himanta Shares Clip | WATCH
A 2004 video of NASA astronaut Mike Fincke dancing Bihu in a gamusa aboard the ISS resurfaced after Assam CM shared it this Bihu, calling it “Bihu going global” and linking it to PM Modi’s 2023 event.
A video of a NASA astronaut performing the Bihu dance aboard the International Space Station (ISS), wrapped in a traditional Assamese ‘Gamosa’, has resurfaced. In the weightlessness of orbit, the astronaut can be seen moving gently to the rhythm of a Bihu song, the white-and-red ‘Gamosa’ floating around him as if the festival itself had been carried 400 km above Earth.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma shared the clip, writing that it was wonderful to see “Bihu going global”. He linked the moment to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bihu Binandia in 2023, when more than 11,000 dancers and drummers gathered at Sarusajai Stadium in Guwahati to set a Guinness World Record with the PM in attendance.
Social media users were quick to point out, however, that the footage is not recent. The video dates back to 2004, when Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister and Tarun Gogoi was Assam’s CM, as one user on X noted with the timing of a well-struck dhol. Yet the clip’s age has done little to dim its magic, and the internet has fallen in love with it all over again.
Man In Gamosa: Veteran Astronaut Mike Fincke
The astronaut wearing the Gamosa is Mike Fincke, a veteran of four NASA missions who has spent 549 days in space, placing him fourth among NASA astronauts for cumulative time off Earth. He has conducted spacewalks, helped repair the station by hand, and commanded one of humanity’s most remarkable outposts.
In 2004, Fincke was aboard the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Expedition 9. The station, roughly the size of a football field, orbits at about 400 km above the ground at 28,000 km per hour, circling the planet once every 90 minutes. Inside, astronauts do not walk but float in microgravity, where every movement becomes slow and deliberate, almost poetic to those watching from Earth.
It was in that setting that Fincke put on his Gamosa, pressed play, and danced. For someone living in zero gravity, his Bihu moves were remarkably fluid and precise, a gesture that turned a scientific workplace into something unexpectedly human.
Quiet Tribute To His Assamese Wife
The reason Fincke performed Bihu in space is simple and deeply personal. His wife, Renita Saikia Fincke, is from Assam. The two met while he was training to be an astronaut, and by all accounts she is the quieter half of a partnership woven through the history of space exploration. She is why he knew what a ‘Gamosa’ means, and why he knew which Bihu song to choose. The dance was not a performance for cameras or a cultural experiment. It was a husband, hundreds of km above his wife’s hometown, finding a way to keep that place close.
As the article notes, a Gamosa floating in zero gravity and a Bihu song playing where only the hum of machines should exist became an extraordinary love letter to Assam. Some dances, it seems, are not just dances. Some are love, launched into orbit.
Fincke’s Recent Return To Earth After Medical Emergency
Mike Fincke is still an active astronaut, though he is currently back on Earth. As part of NASA’s Crew-11 mission, he had been living and working on the station since August 2025. On 7th January 2026, the night before he and his commander were due to conduct a spacewalk, Fincke suddenly lost the ability to speak for around 20 minutes.
His crewmates responded immediately, and NASA’s flight surgeons on Earth stabilised his condition. In an unprecedented move during the station’s 25 years of continuous human occupation, they decided to bring the crew home early. On 15th January 2026, Fincke and his three Crew-11 colleagues splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego, marking the first medical evacuation in the history of the International Space Station.
He has since said he is recovering well at Johnson Space Center in Houston. So this Bihu, the man who once carried Assam’s most beloved festival to the stars is back on solid ground. But the clip endures, a Gamosa suspended in microgravity, a Bihu tune where no sound should be, and a reminder that even 400 km above Earth, home has a way of finding you. As the piece concludes, some things are simply beyond gravity’s reach.
Published By : Abhishek Tiwari
Published On: 20 April 2026 at 02:57 IST