Jingle Bells was the first song broadcast from space: a prank organised by the two astronauts of the Gemini 6A mission that earned them a Guinness World Record.
Walter Schirra and Thomas Stafford secretly snuck a Hohner harmonica and rattles aboard the spacecraft.
The Gemini 6A mission was an important step in the US space programme of the 1960s. Launched on 15 December 1965, the main objective of this mission was a rendezvous with the Gemini 7 capsule, already in orbit.
The rendez-vous between the two capsules took place a few hours after the launch, when Gemini 6A came within 30 centimetres of Gemini 7, setting an all-time record for orbit entry accuracy. This success demonstrated the ability to manoeuvre and rendez-vous with another vehicle in space, a task necessary for future missions, including the Apollo programme that would put man on the moon.
