Halloween on the International Space Station: How Astronauts Celebrate in Orbit

By The SpaceInfo Club Space Engineer, founder of SpaceInfo Club

October 22, 2026 4 min read

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Expedition 21 NASA astronaut Nicole P. Stott shows off her Halloween costume – Credits NASA

Key takeaways

Yes, astronauts celebrate Halloween on the International Space Station. NASA has documented costumes, spooky photos and decorations from crews going back at least to 2009.
In 2009, NASA astronaut Nicole Stott carved a jack-o’-lantern from an orange.
The station is multinational, so the costumes reflect it: Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano dressed as Superman and ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli as Spider-Man, on different expeditions.
The celebrations are about crew morale: a small, light-hearted break in a demanding mission.

Do astronauts celebrate Halloween in space?

They do. Crews on the International Space Station have marked Halloween for years with costumes, decorated modules and photos sent down to Earth. NASA collected many of these moments in a feature published on 31 October 2022, and it is the main source for this article. The celebrations are modest, because the station is a working laboratory with a tight schedule, but they matter: holidays and traditions help crews who spend months away from home.

A short history of Halloween on the ISS

Year / expedition	Who	What happened
2009, Expedition 21	Nicole Stott and crew	The crew showed off costumes. Stott carved a jack-o’-lantern from an orange delivered by a Progress resupply vehicle.
Expedition 37	Luca Parmitano	The Italian astronaut dressed as Superman.
2015	Scott Kelly	Wore a scary mask during his one-year mission.
Expedition 53	Randy Bresnik, Joseph Acaba, Paolo Nespoli	Bresnik showed off his costume, Acaba wore Halloween colours and ESA astronaut Nespoli dressed as Spider-Man.
Expedition 57	Alexander Gerst, Serena Auñón-Chancellor	The two posed in Halloween outfits.
2019, Expedition 61	Christina Koch, Luca Parmitano, Drew Morgan, Jessica Meir	The crew showed their Halloween spirit.
2021, Expedition 66	Shane Kimbrough, Thomas Pesquet, Akihiko Hoshide, Mark Vande Hei	The crew shared Halloween cards and staged a floating, empty spacesuit and a hand rising from a grave. Pesquet described the strange goings-on on the station.

The 2021 case has a twist: the Crew-3 astronauts, Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, Kayla Barron and ESA’s Matthias Maurer, had planned Halloween activities for when they arrived, but bad weather at Kennedy Space Center delayed their launch until 11 November, so they missed the holiday.

Can you carve a pumpkin in space?

The best documented answer is a creative workaround. In 2009, instead of a pumpkin, Nicole Stott carved a jack-o’-lantern from an orange that had arrived on a Progress cargo ship. The NASA feature does not say why an orange was used, so we will not guess at the reason, but there is a general point worth keeping in mind: in microgravity, small loose particles float instead of falling, and crews have to keep them away from equipment and from their own eyes and lungs. Carving anything, even fruit, is therefore a small exercise in housekeeping.

Why does Halloween matter on a space station?

Because long missions are as much about people as about engineering. A standard ISS expedition lasts months, and Scott Kelly’s 2015 mission lasted a full year. In that context, a mask, a costume or a joke with a floating spacesuit is a way to keep the crew connected to each other and to home. It also reminds viewers on the ground that astronauts are people, which is part of why space agencies share these photos.

It is also a good reminder that space is international. The costumes above come from NASA, ESA and Italian astronauts working together on the same station.

What about Halloween 2026?

We have not verified what the current ISS crew has planned for 31 October 2026, so we do not want to guess. NASA and ESA typically publish crew photos around the holiday, and we will update this article if we find an official source.

Frequently asked questions

Do astronauts celebrate Halloween on the ISS?

Yes. NASA has documented crew costumes, decorations and spooky photos from the ISS across many expeditions, from Expedition 21 in 2009 to Expedition 66 in 2021.

Did an astronaut ever carve a pumpkin in space?

Not a pumpkin in the NASA feature, but an orange: in 2009 Nicole Stott carved a jack-o’-lantern from an orange delivered by a Progress resupply vehicle.

Which astronauts have dressed up for Halloween on the ISS?

Examples documented by NASA include Luca Parmitano as Superman, Paolo Nespoli as Spider-Man and Scott Kelly in a scary mask.

Why did the Crew-3 astronauts miss Halloween in 2021?

Their launch was delayed by bad weather at Kennedy Space Center until 11 November 2021, after the holiday.

Sources and how we checked this article

The SpaceInfo Club is an independent space and astronomy publication. This article is based on a single primary source from NASA. Where the source does not give a year or a reason, we say so instead of filling the gap.