On Intercontinental Room Station, astronauts ring in New 12 months 2023 forward of 2nd Christmas
A new calendar year is mounting in room.
The seven Expedition 68 crew members celebrated the arrival of 2023 on the Worldwide House Station in holiday getaway type, including Santa hats, streamers and an tailored Orthodox Xmas tree forward of the Russian celebration Jan. 6.
“Just like back residence, we have a tradition in this article to set up a New Yr tree and embellish the inside of the space station to rejoice the New Yr. Now, we will clearly show you how to do it under zero-gravity problems,” Russian cosmonaut
Sergey Prokopyev reported in a video clip concept from Roscosmos (opens in new tab) on Thursday (Dec. 29), with translation furnished by condition media supplier TASS (opens in new tab).
Beside Prokopyev, Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Anna Kikina place up little ornaments and carried out somersaults, all underneath a coloured banner festooned with the words “New Calendar year” in Cyrillic. Holiday getaway cheer also distribute to the U.S. aspect of the orbiting sophisticated.
Linked: No chimney? No dilemma! How Santa will pay a visit to astronauts on the Global Space Station (movie)
Российские космонавты в невесомости украсили МКС под Новый год:https://t.co/iehc5iNMNBВидео: Роскосмос pic.twitter.com/0XMblQ0JClDecember 29, 2022
In a NASA movie uploaded previous week, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata pledged to choose an image of the very first orbital dawn of 2023 in 1 of the nearby modules in the ISS Kibo module, also furnished by Japan.
The U.S. astronauts have been tranquil on social media all through the holiday season, but in the meantime, NASA uploaded a handful of photographs on Flickr (opens in new tab) of the crew floating all around the place station with Santa hats, stockings and holiday break sweaters.
It will be a fast paced early 2023 for the Expedition 68 crew soon after Russia determines what to do with a Soyuz spacecraft that all of a sudden commenced leaking coolant on Dec. 15. There is no rapid threat to the house station crew, but it is unclear irrespective of whether the Soyuz, named MS-22, can bear Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio back to Earth as prepared.
Russia has pledged its “closing decision” in January on no matter whether to ship up a rescue Soyuz (which would get there no before than February) or to carry the 3 affected crew associates property in Soyuz MS-22, in accordance to reports.
NASA has also reached out to SpaceX to see regardless of whether it would be possible to deliver the trio property in a Crew Dragon spacecraft, if no other backup is available. Dragon Endeavour is docked to the place station appropriate now, but is nominally total as it is scheduled to provide Mann, Cassada, Wakata and Kikina again to Earth.
The bring about of the Soyuz leak has not nonetheless been decided, but stick to-up scans of the spacecraft unveiled a hole in the radiator that could be from a micrometeoroid, or a piece of area particles also modest to keep track of. The 3 Soyuz MS-22 crew associates could be without the need of a lifeboat in the meantime, in case of unexpected emergency on the ISS.
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Push, 2022 with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a reserve about room medication. Stick to her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Fb (opens in new tab).