Here’s what Christmas looked like on the International Space Station

Spare a thought for those who were away from their loved ones this Christmas.

And there can’t have been many who felt further away than the crew aboard the International Space Station.

Still, Nasa astronaut Mark T Vande Hei showed the crew were doing their best to uphold festive traditions with this image of the ISS stockings.

Of course, with no chimney to hang them by, they had to improvise.

And what did the crew – which also includes two more Americans, Joe Acaba and Scott Tingle, Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Alexander Misurkin, and Norishige Kanai from Japan – get up to on Christmas Day?

Well, first of all they had the day off, so they weren’t required to do any important pigs-in-blankets-related experiments or anything like that.

Judging by past years, Christmas on the station isn’t too far away from Christmas on Earth – with calls to relatives, a special Christmas dinner and singalongs.

And like many people down on Earth, they found time for a movie night in the run-up to Christmas with a very special screening of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

No word yet on whether they thought it was better or worse than The Force Awakens.