Although no trick-or-treaters come knocking at the International Space Station’s front hatch, crew members aboard the orbiting facility still like to get in the Halloween spirit. Whether individually or as an entire crew, they will dress up in sometimes spooky, sometimes scary, but always creative costumes, often designed from materials available aboard the space station. Please enjoy the following scenes from Halloweens past even as we anticipate the costumes of the future.
Left: Halloween 2009 and the Expedition 21 crew shows off its costumes. Middle: Expedition 21 Flight
Engineer NASA astronaut Nicole P. Stott. Right: Stott’s version of a jack-o’-lantern, carved from
an orange recently delivered to the space station by a Progress resupply vehicle.
Left: Italian Space Agency astronaut Luca S. Parmitano finally gets his wish to fly
like Superman during Expedition 37. Right: Who’s that behind the scary mask?
None other than NASA astronaut Scott J. Kelly celebrating Halloween in 2015
during his one-year mission.
Left: Expedition 53 Commander NASA astronaut Randolph J. “Randy” Bresnik showing off
his costume. Middle: Expedition 53 Flight Engineer NASA astronaut Joseph M. Acaba
wearing Halloween colors. Right: Expedition 53 European Space Agency astronaut
Paolo A. Nespoli showing off his Spiderman skills.
Left: Expedition 57 crewmembers in their Halloween best – European Space Agency
astronaut and Commander Alexander Gerst, left, and NASA astronaut Serena M.
Auñón-Chancellor. Right: Members of Expedition 61, NASA astronaut Christina
H. Koch, top left, European Space Agency astronaut Luca S. Parmitano, NASA
astronaut Andrew R. “Drew” Morgan, and NASA astronaut Jessica U. Meir,
show off their Halloween spirit in 2019.
Left: Expedition 66 crewmembers NASA astronaut R. Shane Kimbrough, left, Thomas Pesquet of the
European Space Agency, Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and NASA
astronaut Mark T. vande Hei showing off their Halloween cards. Middle: A spooky empty
spacesuit just floating around. Right: A hand rising from the grave?
In October 2021, Crew-3 crew members NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, Kayla S. Barron, and Thomas Maurer of the European Space Agency (ESA), had some undisclosed plans for when they reached the space station just before Halloween. However, bad weather at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida thwarted those super-secret spooky Halloween plans, delaying their launch until Nov. 11. Undeterred, Expedition 66 crewmembers who awaited them aboard the station held their own Halloween shenanigans. ESA astronaut Thomas G. Pesquet posted on social media that “Strange things were happening on ISS for Halloween: a spooky spacesuit floating. And Aki rising from the dead (or is it from our observation window?),” referring to fellow crew member Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
The spookiness continues…