A tiny white ghost decoration drifts slowly in front of a space station window, Earth’s blue curve and thin atmosphere glowing below. That is the view NASA astronaut Anil Menon shared on October 31, 2026, when he posted a short video from the International Space Station with a simple caption: “Happy Halloween!”
The footage, picked up by outlets including ABC7 Chicago and credited to Menon via Storyful, shows the lightweight prop hovering and gently tumbling in the station’s microgravity environment. No wires. No tricks. Just the everyday physics of life 250 miles above the planet.
Menon, a Minnesota native, emergency medicine physician, mechanical engineer, and U.S. Space Force colonel, is on his first spaceflight. He launched July 14, 2026, aboard the Russian Soyuz MS-29 from Baikonur Cosmodrome alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina. The crew is serving on Expeditions 74 and 75 for an approximately eight-month stay.
Before becoming an astronaut, Menon worked as a NASA flight surgeon and served as SpaceX’s first flight surgeon, supporting the Demo-2 mission. NASA selected him in the 2021 astronaut candidate class. He has already completed multiple spacewalks during this mission, including work on solar arrays.
Earth’s gravity still pulls strongly at the station’s altitude. The ISS and everything inside it are in continuous free fall, racing forward at roughly 17,500 miles per hour while falling toward the planet. Because the station, the astronauts, and the little ghost all fall together, the decoration appears weightless and drifts freely. The station completes an orbit about every 90 minutes, giving the crew roughly 16 sunrises and sunsets each day.
Halloween is nothing new on the ISS. Crews have marked the holiday for years with costumes made from available materials, floating decorations, and playful photos. NASA has documented these celebrations going back more than a decade. Menon’s floating ghost fits the pattern a lighthearted way for long-duration crews to stay connected with people on Earth while living in an extreme environment.
It immediately became popular on the Internet. People commented on the amazing view of the Earth and how naturally the place seemed to be haunted because of the microgravity effect. The media considered this video to be a normal personal message from a current crew member rather than some kind of presentation.
In Menon’s message, there is a very human element. In spite of all their experiments, spacewalks, and orbital life, astronauts still manage to have their regular practices. A little white ghost flying by a window with Earth being its stage is another proof that people just continue to do everyday things in extraordinary situations.
