Click here to watch more Space.com videos.
The astronauts on the International Space Station shared a message for the people on Earth.
This year, the crew of the space station will be celebrating Christmas with their families. The crew shared a special holiday message on the social networking site, explaining what Christmas means to them and reflecting on childhood memories.
"I always look forward to this time of year because even when I was away at the naval academy, that was always the time that I got to come home to see my family," he said in the holiday video.
An astronauts photo album.
The crew of the International Space Station sent a video message to Earth. NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Raja Chari, and Kayla Barron, as well as NASA astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Matthias Maurer, are pictured from left to right. The image is from NASA.
The crew of the space station were launched on Nov. 10, along with Barron. The crew docked with the lab in November. They will return to Earth in late April of 2022.
The crew shared how it feels to spend their first Christmas in space in a holiday video.
"We have our space family even though we'll be up here this year," said Barron in the video. We will be able to talk to our family on the ground and create some of our own traditions.
There is a new family here in space, and so I am looking forward to spending Christmas with this family.
The space station flies over Earth about every 90 minutes or 16 times a day. The crew will be celebrating Christmas 16 times in the month of December. While celebrating the holiday in space, Maurer noted the importance of doing a special job.
The crew shared their favorite holiday traditions, from mom's double chocolate cookies to decorating the Christmas tree and enjoying a special Christmas eve dinner. The crew took a moment to reflect on the year ahead and the science experiments to look forward to, since they will also be ringing in the New Year in space.
"We get to see the sun rise many times a day, so it's pretty cool that people wake up to a sunrise each year," she said.
The astronauts sent their love and a message to their families in the end of the video.
Vande Hei said in the video that his heart is always with his family no matter where he is.
Follow SamAshley13. Follow us on social media.
