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Christmas in Space: ; Astronaut to Connect With Family Via Videoconference

Posted on: Wednesday, 28 December 2005, 00:00 CST

By Robyn Shelton

ORLANDO, Fla. - Bill McArthur is away on a business trip, so he enlisted his daughters to pick up Christmas gifts for his wife of 30 years.

Cindy McArthur did some shopping of her own: choosing a holiday care package of candy, snacks and trinkets for her husband.

A Russian rocket delivered the goodies to him Friday.

Sometime today, the family's Houston contingent will gather at home and pass around wrapped presents while Bill McArthur's image floats on a video screen.

It's Christmas, NASA style, with McArthur celebrating 220 miles above the planet in a space station hurtling around Earth at 17,500 mph. He will dig out the treats and cards from his nonflammable, flight-approved Christmas stocking, and then dine on rehydrated vegetables, canned meats and Russian pastries.

Although accustomed to travel and tough assignments, the retired Army colonel, test pilot and accomplished astronaut expects to be a little homesick today. Good thing he has the startling beauty of the Earth outside his window to distract him.

"Christmas has always been my favorite time of the year," said McArthur, in a holiday video with Russian crewmate Valery Tokarev. "So, for me, this will be perhaps the time in which being away from my family will be the most stressful, the most significant. But at the same time, what a wonderful place to spend Christmas."

McArthur and Tokarev have been living in orbit since October, when a Russian Soyuz rocket carried them from the Kazakhstan desert for a six-month stint on the international space station.

The two men are the 12th crew to inhabit the $100 billion outpost, a five-room complex that's roughly the size of a 1,800- square-foot house on Earth.

It is crammed with equipment, supplies and science experiments, along with the basics for living: a rudimentary galley for meals (no refrigerator), three phone-booth-sized sleep stations, a sole toilet (no shower), a treadmill and two exercise bikes.

Inside the radiation-resistant walls, the men will spend the holi- day making phone calls to friends, enjoying videoconferences with family and floating around the table for a festive meal of Russian foods. Like every Sunday, they will have the day off from the daily grind of science experiments and station upkeep.

McArthur will be missed back on Earth by his wife and daughters, 26-year-old Kate, a lawyer; and 24-year-old Meg, an anthropologist and archaeologist.

But at the same time, they know Bill relishes his time in orbit.

"We're looking forward to the videoconference," said Cindy McArthur, the astronaut's high-school sweetheart. "When you know somebody well, you can just look at them and see how they're doing.

"And I love to see him on the station. He's always laughing and smiling. Certainly, we'll be missing him here, but we recognize that this is an opportunity to celebrate a very unique Christmas."

That's the goal of American and Russian space officials, who go to great lengths every year to make sure their orbiting crews have a taste of the holidays.

This year, the station's yuletide touches include a small fake tree with glistening tinsel-type strands and red ornaments. They also have a bright fabric banner adorned with a tree and fuzzy Santa hats that the crew members - both from military-pilot backgrounds - wore during their Christmas video.

Holidays also mean a break from the 10-day rotation of meals eaten by crew members. Because the men had an American feast of irradiated turkey, rehydrated green beans and cranberry dessert on Thanksgiving, they opted to dine on Russian fare for Christmas.

The food packages Velcroed to the table probably will include a beet soup called borscht and rye bread. Canned meats and fish are likely. And the topper will be Russian pastries.

They also will get treats from their Christmas stockings, delivered just in time, courtesy of a regularly planned Russian supply ship launched from Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

The astronauts' families were able to select snacks, candy and holiday greetings to be tucked inside the specially made stockings.

The supply ship, a Russian Progress vehicle, docked at the station Friday with nearly 6,000 pounds of necessities such as propellant, food, oxygen and water.

But officials made certain months ago that families could get the holiday surprises on board.

"They're still Earth creatures up there," said Walter Sipes, a NASA psychologist at Johnson Space Center who helps to train station crews for the challenges of long-duration missions.

"The tradition of Christmas is important to people, so we try to keep it as normal as possible for them, and we try to keep them connected with family and friends."

Indeed, McArthur is so connected that he doesn't even get a pass this year on buying a gift for his wife. She thinks he has dispatched their girls to do the work.

"Let's just say there have been phone calls going on, and I think our daughters are being elves for [Bill's] Christmas shopping," Cindy McArthur said, laughing. "So I know he's got that covered."

The pair started dating during high school in Red Springs, N.C., near the small town of Wakulia, where Bill channeled his boyhood desire to fly by making model airplanes and rockets.

Influenced by his father, an Army brigadier general now deceased, McArthur went to West Point and on to flight school for the Army before being selected for Navy Test Pilot School.

McArthur made the leap to the astronaut corps in 1990 and flew on three shuttle voyages, including a trip to the space station in 2000.

This time, the die-hard space enthusiast gets to live the orbital life long-term. He and Tokarev are expected to return to Earth in April aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule.

His wife said McArthur is savoring the prolonged time in space, keeping busy with projects on the station and floating outside in November on a spacewalk to do additional upkeep.

During his downtime, there's also no doubt that McArthur is getting a good dose of Mother Earth from the station windows. The view alone can have a positive effect on some astronauts, said Albert Harrison, a psychology professor at the University of California at Davis.

"There's a sense of grandeur - you might call it a transcendent type of experience, a oneness with God and nature," said Harrison, who has written a book on the psychological aspects of human spaceflight.

"Astronauts are pretty tough eggs - fighter pilots and that type of thing - but quite a few of them report having this kind of transcendent experience in orbit," he said.

The majesty of space has not been lost on McArthur, who commented in his holiday greeting that looking down on Earth conjures up a sense of obligation.

"It really strikes us how fortunate mankind is to live on such a wonderful, beautiful planet," McArthur said. "And we also realize that we have great responsibilities as stewards of this planet."

With the spectacular views and his crewmate to keep McArthur company for Christmas, his wife said she has no worries about him being lonely on the holiday.

He and Tokarev had trained together for four years before the mission, so they've become good friends.

Source: Sunday Gazette - Mail; Charleston, W.V.

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