Well, that's embarrassing.
On Christmas Eve, British astronaut Tim Peake gave someone on Earth quite a surprise when he accidentally dialed the wrong number from the International Space Station.
I'd like to apologise to the lady I just called by mistake saying 'Hello, is this planet Earth?' - not a prank call...just a wrong number!— Tim Peake (@astro_timpeake) December 24, 2015
Astronauts on the Space Station are able to call their families on Earth through video and voice calls when they have free time. (To be fair though, astronauts don't get a ton of free time. Peake, for his part, is going to help with about 265 science and medical experiments while on the orbiting laboratory for six months.)
Generally, astronauts seem to get a kick out of being able to call people on Earth.
NASA astronaut John Grunsfeld called into the radio program Car Talk when he was flying through space aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1997. Grunsfeld asked the Tappet brothers to speculate about why his "government vehicle" (aka the space shuttle) seems to behave strangely.
Peake is joined on the Space Station by NASA's Scott Kelly and Tim Kopra and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Volkov, Mikhail Kornienko and Yuri Malenchenko.
In a single orbit #MerryChristmas around the world from @space_station! #YearInSpacehttps://t.co/RjQkcf8ol4— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) December 25, 2015
Our family tradition is to open one present on Christmas Eve. Mine was my "crew preference" container from home. pic.twitter.com/M6kWvxkKTy— Colonel Tim Kopra (@astro_tim) December 25, 2015
Hope you're all having a wonderful Christmas eve down there. You're looking good from up here! #Principia pic.twitter.com/8O50l7ZWzL— Tim Peake (@astro_timpeake) December 24, 2015
The astronauts on the station got a new shipment of supplies and even Christmas presents earlier this month when an uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft docked with the station. Another uncrewed supply vehicle, a Russian Progress ship, delivered food and other objects to the laboratory when it arrived at the station on Wednesday.