Christmas Crisis At The ISS

"Two days till Christmas Eve," said Mikel, "should we decorate?"

"Yeah," replied Tom, "great idea."

Since most of the occupants of the International Space Station came from countries that celebrated Christmas, a supply of decorations was maintained on board.  The crew started out by unpacking a folding tree constructed out of fire retardant Nomex.

"This will welcome the new crew," said Alexander.

There had been just the three of them for three months due to a disruption in the flight schedule.  Three additional crew had launched the day before, and would arrive the next day.

"What else can we add?" asked Tom.

"We've got these Velcro ornaments that can be stuck up around the station," answered Alexander.

They ended up with a festive look.  It didn't completely relieve the nostalgia the men felt for missing the holidays at home, but it didn't hurt.

The crew returned to their normal schedule, monitoring experiments being conducted, and reviewing the station's systems to insure everything was in order.

No matter how long they'd been on board, they all took some time out each day to study the universe around them.  A Christmas sky they'd never seen from Earth.

The radio suddenly came to life with a transmission from the Soyuz spacecraft.

"ISS, ISS, come in," came from the speaker.

"This is the ISS," replied Mikel, "go ahead."

"A mini-meteorite has punctured the ships hull."

"Since you're transmitting, apparently there was no explosive decompression.  But are you losing pressure?" asked Mikel.

"Yes to both," came the response.  "Oleg has an idea that we're going to try.  Stand by."

Precious minutes passed.

"How about moving closer to the ship to reduce the amount of time until docking can occur?" asked Alexander.

"We could move, but the risk is making it much harder to execute the docking," answered Mikel.

"That's right," agreed Tom.  "Our computers and theirs are setup for the planned docking."

"OK, thought it was worth considering," concluded Alexander.

"You're not going to believe how we solved the problem," came from the Soyuz.  "Well, actually if you're fans of Christmas food you might.  But we're saving the punch line until we dock."

The next day, the scheduled docking came off without a hitch.

After unpacking the new supplies, the full crew gathered to celebrate with the goodies their families had sent for the holiday.  Tom, Mikel, and Alexander were curious to learn the mystery of the stopped air leak.

"The good news is that the leak was plugged," said Oleg, the Soyuz commander.  "The bad news is there's one less goodie to celebrate with."

"The magic plug was a special fruit cake from my Great Aunt," he continued.  "Here's to my Great Aunt."

"Here's to all our families," said Tom.  "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year"

"Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom," finished Mikel.



Note: While the description of the "crisis" is fictional, the Christmas decorations and celebration are representative of life on the ISS based on information published by NASA.