A brand new yr is rising in area.
The seven Expedition 68 crew members celebrated the arrival of 2023 on the Worldwide House Station in vacation type, together with Santa hats, streamers and an tailored Orthodox Christmas tree forward of the Russian celebration Jan. 6.
“Similar to again house, we’ve a convention right here to place up a New 12 months tree and embellish the inside of the area station to rejoice the New 12 months. At present, we’ll present you how one can do it underneath zero-gravity situations,” Russian cosmonaut
Sergey Prokopyev mentioned in a video message from Roscosmos (opens in new tab) on Thursday (Dec. 29), with translation supplied by state media supplier TASS (opens in new tab).
Beside Prokopyev, Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Anna Kikina put up tiny ornaments and carried out somersaults, all beneath a coloured banner festooned with the phrases “New 12 months” in Cyrillic. Vacation cheer additionally unfold to the U.S. facet of the orbiting advanced.
Associated: No chimney? No drawback! How Santa will go to astronauts on the Worldwide House Station (video)
Российские космонавты в невесомости украсили МКС под Новый год:https://t.co/iehc5iNMNBВидео: Роскосмос pic.twitter.com/0XMblQ0JClDecember 29, 2022
In a NASA video uploaded final week, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata pledged to take a picture of the primary orbital dawn of 2023 in one of many close by modules within the ISS Kibo module, additionally supplied by Japan.
The U.S. astronauts have been quiet on social media in the course of the vacation season, however within the meantime, NASA uploaded just a few images on Flickr (opens in new tab) of the crew floating across the area station with Santa hats, stockings and vacation sweaters.
Will probably be a busy early 2023 for the Expedition 68 crew after Russia determines what to do with a Soyuz spacecraft that all of a sudden began leaking coolant on Dec. 15. There isn’t any speedy hazard to the area station crew, however it’s unclear whether or not the Soyuz, known as MS-22, can bear Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio again to Earth as deliberate.
Russia has pledged its “closing determination” in January on whether or not to ship up a rescue Soyuz (which might arrive no sooner than February) or to carry the three affected crew members house in Soyuz MS-22, in accordance with reviews.
NASA has additionally reached out to SpaceX to see whether or not it might be doable to carry the trio house in a Crew Dragon spacecraft, if no different backup is offered. Dragon Endeavour is docked to the area station proper now, however is nominally full as it’s scheduled to carry Mann, Cassada, Wakata and Kikina again to Earth.
The reason for the Soyuz leak has not but been decided, however follow-up scans of the spacecraft revealed a gap within the radiator that could be from a micrometeoroid, or a bit of area particles too small to trace. The three Soyuz MS-22 crew members could be with out a lifeboat within the meantime, in case of emergency on the ISS.
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a e-book about area medication. Comply with her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Fb (opens in new tab).
