On December 16, 1965, NASA astronauts Wally Schirra Jr. and Thomas P. Stafford contacted Mission Control in Houston, Texas, to report a UFO sighting. Mission Control engineers listened tensely as the astronauts aboard Gemini 6 described the unusual aircraft they spotted as they orbited the earth.
“I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front,” Stafford said. “The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit.” The Houston lab was silent, waiting for more details on this UFO, when Wally Schirra began playing “Jingle Bells” on his harmonica, while Thomas Stafford stood in the background and shook a set of tiny sleigh bells.
It was a little Christmas prank they had planned for weeks before the Gemini’s launch. Today, Wally Schirra’s harmonica sits in a special display case in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. It is, according to historians, the first musical instrument ever played in space.
Smithsonian, Christmas Cards, by Owen Edwards