Video by buzzlab

In December 1965, Gemini VI met up with Gemini VII on a mission to test the spacecraft's docking and maneuvering capability. After the successful maneuvering of the two spacecraft to within 6 inches of each other, astronauts Walter "Wally" Schirra and Tom Stafford played a rendition of Jingle Bells. Now, thanks to the dedicated investigation of the YouTube user Buzzlab, you can hear it for yourself. Buzzlab explains the search:

After digging around their Web site and calling the phone tree at Johnson Space Center, I eventually reached Librarian Jody Russell. Her contacts in the Audio Department pointed me to the online archive for the entire Gemini 6 and 7 joint mission.

They narrowed it down to 8 audio files for me, which covered about 33 hours of the mission. They also provided me with links to mission transcripts that I could use as reference to find the song.

The message from NASA ended with "...it's in there somewhere."

Learn more about the instruments smuggled aboard the space flight, visit Jingle Bells in Space.

via Boing Boing