'Jingle Bells' Was the First Song Played in Space : Big Pic

Dec. 14, 2010 -- On December 16, 1965, Gemini 6 astronauts Walter M. "Wally" Schirra Jr. and Thomas P. Stafford gave NASA an early Christmas present.

Having successfully completed the first ever two-space vehicle rendezvous in orbit with Frank Borman and James Lovell, Jr. in Gemini 7, Schirra and Stafford were understandably in high spirits before they began their atmospheric reentry maneuvers.

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But, before beginning their journey home, NASA received a report from the pair saying they had spotted a UFO. According to Schirra's memoirs "Schirra's Space," Stafford contacted Mission Control and said: "We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in polar orbit.... Looks like he might be going to re-enter soon.... You just might let me pick up that thing.... I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit."

Before Mission Control had time to digest the "UFO sighting," they heard an extraterrestrial rendition of "Jingle Bells" coming from Gemini 6. Schirra and Stafford had smuggled a harmonica and miniature sleigh bells onto the spacecraft especially for this moment.

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Although Mission Control sounded tense when they heard about the "UFO Santa" sighting, when the astronauts finished their impromptu Jingle Bells rendition, NASA's Elliot See just said, "You're too much," remembered Stafford in a Smithsonian Magazine article from 2005.

The chrome bells attached to a nylon chord (pictured here), along with the tiny, four-hole, eight-note Little Lady Hohner harmonica, were donated to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum by Tom Stafford in 1967. The instruments have gone down in history as being the first instruments played in space and Schirra and Stafford's high jinx became the first musical rendition to be played in orbit.

Image courtesy of Eric Long, National Air and Space Museum.

-- Ian O'Neill, Discovery News