In 1965, astronauts on Gemini 6 smuggled a harmonica and sleigh bells onto their spacecraft and played “Jingle Bells” for Mission Control, making it the first song performed in space. The instruments are now on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.
A few days before Christmas, in December 1965, the spacecraft Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 took part in the first manned two-vehicle rendezvous in space. Shortly thereafter, as astronauts Walter M. “Wally” Schirra Jr. and Thomas P. Stafford prepared Gemini 6 for reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, they contacted Mission Control and reported a sighting of “a command module and eight modules small in front. They said, “The command module pilot is wearing a red suit.” It was then that Mission Control heard the familiar yet otherworldly sounds of “Jingle Bells” coming from outer space. Schirra and Stafford had smuggled a harmonica and miniature sleigh bells aboard the Gemini 6 spacecraft. This is how James Lord Pierpont’s 1857 composition “Jingle Bells” became the first song performed in space.
Merry Christmas from the great afterlife:
The four-hole, eight-note Little Lady harmonica and five small bells used to play the iconic Christmas tune are now on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.
“Wally came up with the idea,” Stafford recalled. “He could play the harmonica and we practiced it two or three times before taking off, but obviously we didn’t tell the guys on the ground.”
The two astronauts attached dental floss and Velcro to the instruments so they could be hung on the spacecraft wall when they weren’t being played.
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