Space missions are serious business. Every minute is planned, every item on board is counted, and every word over the radio is recorded. So imagine the surprise at Mission Control when, a few days before Christmas in 1965, the sound of music came crackling down from orbit.
Here's what happened. On December 16, 1965, Gemini 6A astronauts Wally Schirra and Thomas P. Stafford played 'Jingle Bells' over the radio on a tiny harmonica and a handful of small bells they had smuggled aboard. According to the Smithsonian Institution, those were the first musical instruments ever played in space. One small clarification: it wasn't the first song heard in space. A Soviet cosmonaut had sung a song in orbit three years earlier.
A Prank About a Mysterious Visitor
The astronauts set the joke up perfectly. Over the radio, Gemini 6 reported spotting an object that looked like a satellite, traveling from north to south in a very low orbit, as if it might be about to reenter the atmosphere. Something coming down from the north, just days before Christmas, should have been a clue.
They were jokingly describing Santa Claus. Before anyone at Mission Control could get too worried, the crew broke into a live rendition of 'Jingle Bells.' The Gemini 7 crew replied that they got the tune, and Gemini 6 added that it was live, not a tape. The ground's response: 'You're too much.'
The Smuggled Instruments
The instruments had been brought aboard without NASA's knowledge. The harmonica was an eight-note Hohner 'Little Lady,' small enough to hide easily. Schirra later donated it to the Smithsonian in 1967, with a note saying it plays quite well. The museum keeps the harmonica and bells on display.
A Historic Mission, Too
The music was the fun part, but the mission itself made history. Gemini 6A achieved the first crewed rendezvous with another spacecraft, its sister ship Gemini 7. The two capsules came as close as one foot apart while orbiting Earth.
The Soviet Union had launched pairs of spacecraft before, but those couldn't change their orbits to meet up, and stayed several kilometers apart. The Gemini rendezvous proved that astronauts could find and approach another spacecraft in orbit, a skill that would be essential for landing on the Moon. During the approach, Schirra spotted a bright point of light he thought was the star Sirius. It was actually Gemini 7.
Who Really Sang First?
The first song ever performed in space came earlier. On August 12, 1962, Soviet cosmonaut Pavel Popovich sang a Ukrainian song, whose title translates to 'Watching the sky and thinking a thought,' at the special request of Sergei Korolev, the chief designer of the Soviet space program. So Popovich gets credit for the first song, and the Gemini crew for the first instruments.
Music has followed people into space ever since. Apollo 17 astronauts sang a few bars of a song on the Moon in 1972, and over the years, a flute, a keyboard, a guitar, a saxophone, and even a didgeridoo have made it aboard the International Space Station. In 2013, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded a music video of David Bowie's 'Space Oddity' on the station, the first music video ever shot in space.
Still, there's something special about that first little concert in 1965: two astronauts, a harmonica, a few bells, and a holiday joke from orbit. It's a reminder that even in the most serious places, a bit of good cheer can travel a long way.
