A brand new yr is rising in space.
The seven Expedition 68 crew members celebrated the arrival of 2023 on the International Space Station in vacation type, together with Santa hats, streamers and an tailored Orthodox Christmas tree forward of the Russian celebration Jan. 6.
“Identical to again dwelling, we’ve got a convention right here to place up a New 12 months tree and enhance the inside of the space station to have a good time the New 12 months. As we speak, we’ll present you the way to do it underneath zero-gravity situations,” Russian cosmonaut
Sergey Prokopyev stated in a video message from Roscosmos (opens in new tab) on Thursday (Dec. 29), with translation offered 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. aspect of the orbiting advanced.
Associated: No chimney? No problem! How Santa will visit astronauts on the International Space 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 last 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 offered 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 a couple of images on Flickr (opens in new tab) of the crew floating across the space station with Santa hats, stockings and vacation sweaters.
It will likely be a busy early 2023 for the Expedition 68 crew after Russia determines what to do with a Soyuz spacecraft that instantly started leaking coolant on Dec. 15. There isn’t any quick hazard to the space station crew, however it’s unclear whether or not the Soyuz, referred to as MS-22, can bear Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio again to Earth as deliberate.
Russia has pledged its “final decision” in January on whether or not to ship up a rescue Soyuz (which might arrive no sooner than February) or to convey the three affected crew members dwelling in Soyuz MS-22, in accordance with stories.
NASA has additionally reached out to SpaceX to see whether or not it could be attainable to bring the trio home in a Crew Dragon spacecraft, if no different backup is obtainable. Dragon Endeavour is docked to the space station proper now, however is nominally full as it’s scheduled to convey 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 hole in the radiator that may be from a micrometeoroid, or a bit of space particles too small to trace. The three Soyuz MS-22 crew members may be with no 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 ebook about space medication. Comply with her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
