The offensive of the New Year 2021 was first met in near-earth orbit by seven earthlings at once – Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, NASA astronauts Kathleen Rubins, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi. It was the most crowded New Year’s “feast” on board the International Space Station in the history of manned space exploration.
The first cosmonauts who celebrated the New Year in near-earth orbit were Yuri Romanenko and Georgy Grechko in 1977-1978. With the appearance in 1986 of the Soviet orbital station “Mir” (and hereinafter – the ISS), this holiday began to be celebrated in orbit regularly. In particular, over 20 years, 79 people have met the New Year on board the International Space Station, some of the cosmonauts and astronauts twice, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov celebrated three New Years in orbit (in 2011-2012, in 2014-2015 and in 2017-2018).
As Sergei Kud-Sverchkov said earlier on his pages in social networks, the New Year’s table for the ISS crew was the most common, and of the festive dishes – sandwiches with caviar. According to the Roskosmos cosmonaut, the station has the same traditions as on Earth: a Christmas tree, gifts, a festive table and a good mood.