STP17 - Rocketing Around The Christmas Tree

<p>To get us in the festive spirit, we spend some time looking at the history of crewed space flight at Christmas. We even added some jingle bells to help get you in the mood.</p><br><p>Further Reading: </p><p>A brief history of humans spending Christmas in space: <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-18/brief-history-of-humans-spending-christmas-in-space/9235812" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-18/brief-history-of-humans-spending-christmas-in-space/9235812</a></p><br><p>Christmas on Skylab (Andrew LePage) -<a href=" https://www.drewexmachina.com/2014/12/24/christmas-1973-on-skylab/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> https://www.drewexmachina.com/2014/12/24/christmas-1973-on-skylab/</a></p><p>Christmas 2000 on the ISS (Andrew LePage) - <a href="https://www.drewexmachina.com/2015/12/24/christmas-2000-on-the-iss/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.drewexmachina.com/2015/12/24/christmas-2000-on-the-iss/</a></p><br><p>STS 103:<a href=" https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-103.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-103.html</a></p><p>STS 61: <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-61.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-61.html</a></p><br><p>Christmas 97 on Mir: <a href="https://www.windows2universe.org/headline_universe/holly_mir.html&amp;edu=high&amp;dev=1the" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.windows2universe.org/headline_universe/holly_mir.html&amp;edu=high&amp;dev=1the</a></p><br><p>This week's space news:</p><br><p>Launches: </p><p>Astra Rocket 3.2 - December 15th: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCVmjS4nJVg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCVmjS4nJVg</a></p><p><a href="https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2020/12/astra-second-or