NASA celebrates Halloween, reminisces memories of 2018 expedition

As Halloween was celebrated across the world on October 31, America’s premier space agency NASA has taken the celebrations to a whole new level. Taking the celebrations to space, the Instagram handle of NASA posted an image of astronauts aboard the international space station last year in space-themed Halloween costume. Russian cosmonaut Sergei Prokopev, European Space Agency astronaut Alex Gerst and NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor were in the Instagram picture, posed for a Halloween photo on the international space station in 2018.

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Halloween Origins

Halloween is a holiday celebrated across the world on October 31 every year. The tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain in Europe when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honour all saints. Soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating treats. 

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About the Astronauts

Russian cosmonaut Prokopev had commanded the Soyuz MS-09 spaceflight which launched on June 6, 2018, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome that transported the three members of the Expedition 56/57 crew to the International Space Station. Alongside Prokopev were flight engineers Alexander Gerst, and Serena Auñón-Chancellor. It successfully docked at the International Space Station on June 8, 2018, bringing the Expedition 56 crew up to six members. Prokopev had also conducted a spacewalk on December 11, 2018, to investigate a hole that had been found in Soyuz MS-09. 

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Alexander Gerst is a German European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut and geophysicist who was also a part of the International Space Station Expedition 40/41 from May to November 2014 before being inducted in the Expedition 56/57. He holds the record for most time in space of any active ESA astronaut (362 days), succeeding Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli, and German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, who formally held the record for the longest time in space for any active or retired ESA astronaut. 

A medical doctor-turned-astronaut, Auñón-Chancellor spent 197 days in space onboard the International Space Station (ISS) last year, performing research on various scientific experiments. In July 2009, she was selected from more than 3,500 candidates as one of 14 members of the 20th NASA astronaut class. Serena graduated in November 2011 from Astronaut Candidate Training, becoming the second Hispanic woman to become a NASA astronaut.

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