NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli celebrated Hanukkah on the International Space Station (ISS) with a felt menorah and a spinning dreidel on Thursday night.
Happy Hanukkah from the @Space_Station!! Real candles not allowed! pic.twitter.com/xdqwyot5ae
— Jasmin Moghbeli (@AstroJaws) December 7, 2023
"Happy Hanukkah from the @Space_Station!! Real candles not allowed!" wrote Moghbeli on X with a video showing a felt menorah with felt "flames" and a dreidel spinning near one of the windows of the space station.
During a press conference at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in July, Moghbeli mentioned that she intended to celebrate the holiday in space, saying "My husband and little girls helped make a felt menorah, with lights for each night, that I can pin on to celebrate with them. So I'm excited to do that," according to Space.com.
Will there be latkes in space?
In a Zoom call at the time with Space.com, Moghbeli added that she is considering how to include latkes if possible.
Moghbeli's husband, Sam, is Jewish and their household celebrates both Christmas and Hanukkah. Moghbeli is the second Iranian-American to go to space.
This isn't the first time Hanukkah has been celebrated at the ISS. In 2019, Jewish astronaut Jessica Meir posted a photo from the space station with socks with menorahs and Stars of David.