Despite facing down solar panel woes and a spacewalk delay aboard the International Space Station, astronauts took some time to celebrate Halloween today in Earth orbit.

With a long, dark cape flowing behind him, NASA astronaut “Count” Clay Anderson gave a vampiric touch to life aboard the ISS, where he has lived and worked for nearly five months. While he’s returning home next week aboard the space shuttle Discovery, his replace Daniel Tani joined in the fun: He donned a beanie cap and pirate eye patch while working in the station’s new Harmony node.

It may seem irrelevant, or even downright childish, for grown men to don Halloween costumes while flying 220 miles (354 kilometers) above Earth. And it would seem even more so with the 10 astronauts aboard the space station embroiled in a busy, complicated construction mission that has only grown more challenging with Tuesday’s tear in an ISS solar wing, which spacewalkers will now have to repair during a Friday excursion.

But it’s heartening that despite those challenges, these professional spaceflyers can have a bit of fun to lighten the stress load of what is almost certainly a busy time in orbit.

As Discovery’s shuttle commander Pamela Melroy told Mission Control today:

“We’re not sure if today’s was a trick or a treat, but we sure enjoy working with you,” Melroy said, warning folks not to stay up too late. “Happy Halloween.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 4:37 pm and is filed under Society, Space & Astronomy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.