Another new year is around the corner and people are gearing up to celebrate at the stroke of midnight. If you have been wondering when astronauts aboard the ISS will celebrate, read and find out.
Holiday traditions in Space
The holiday season is in progress and people around the world are getting ready to celebrate the New Year. However, celebrations are no different for those in space. The crew members of Expedition 1 who arrived at the International Space Station in November 2000 were the first to celebrate the holidays there. The ongoing Expedition 68 is the 24th year of ISS’ operation since the beginning of its assembly.
In the past, astronauts from the Apollo 8 mission were the first to celebrate Christmas in space in 1968. Later in 1973 and 1974, Skylab 4 crew celebrated Thanksgiving and New Year’s in the orbit. This year, the Shenzhou 13 became the first Chinese crew to celebrate New Year in space.
When will ISS astronauts celebrate new year?
The ISS follows the Universal Coordinated Time (UTC), also known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Hence, ISS astronauts will be celebrating the New Year at UTC timings. The current crew is from various parts of the world and UTC is the mid-point for all of the time zones. Additionally, using UTC allows both Houston and Moscow missions to cover a shift for one-half of the day.
Currently, there are seven crew members aboard the space station. It comprises three NASA astronauts-Josh Cassada, Frank Rubio, and Nicole Mann, Three Roscosmos cosmonauts-Dmitri Petelin, Anna Kikina, and Sergey Prokopyev; and Koichi Wakata belonging to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Prokopyev is their current commander. Expedition 68 began in September 2022 and will continue until March 2023.