Who was the American astronaut that was part of Project Mercury who carried an 8-note Hohner harmonica and a handful of small bells aboard a Gemini 6A rocket ship?
Music in space Music in space is music played in or broadcast from a spacecraft in outer space. The Smithsonian Institution claims that the first musical instruments played in outer space were an 8-note Hohner "Little Lady" harmonica and a handful of small bells carried by American astronauts Wally Schirra and Thomas P. Stafford aboard Gemini 6A. Upon achieving a space rendezvous in Earth orbit with their sister sister ship Gemini 7 in December 1965, Schirra and Stafford played a rendition of "Jingle Bells" over the radio after jokingly claiming to have seen an unidentified flying object piloted by Santa Claus. The harmonica was donated to the Smithsonian by Schirra in 1967, with his note that it "...plays quite well".
Mike Mullane Richard Michael "Mike" Mullane (born September 10, 1945) is an engineer, a retired USAF officer and a former NASA astronaut, flying on three Space Shuttle missions.