The people of the earth rang in the year 2021 with fireworks and social distance amid the worldwide coronavirus pandemic last night. Even astronauts in space have found a way to celebrate in their own unique way: a ballfall in zero gravity.
In a video from the International Space Station on New Year’s Eve (December 31), five of the six astronauts who lived aboard the orbital laboratory revealed what would look like in space in 2021. All they needed was a globe.
“We wanted to take a moment to wish you all a very Happy New Year,” NASA astronaut Kate Rubins said in a video released by NASA on YouTube.
Related: Holidays in space: an astronaut photo album
“One of the most famous New Year’s Eve traditions is to see the ball fall on Times Square in New York City,” NASA astronaut Victor Glover added, referring to the iconic celebration in which thousands of revelers packed New York’s Times Square to to see a glittering sheen. ball dropped at midnight to celebrate the new year.
As the city of New York restricts the spread of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Times Square officials have blocked off most of the revealers.
“As many of us celebrate the New Year from home, we’ve brought this famous tradition into space to share with you,” NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins said in the video.
“As we are in gravity, we have a special twist,” added the astronaut Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
That turn? In gravity, the ball can fall.
“3, 2, 1, happy new year!” the astronauts cheered in the video, which they pre-recorded before the actual new year.
“We hope it inspires you to celebrate in your own way,” NASA astronaut Shannon Walker added just before the final score.
Glover, Hopkins, Noguchi, Rubins and Walker are part of the International Space Station’s seven-person Expedition 64 crew, with Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos rounding out the team. Rubins, Kud-Sverchkov and Ryzhikov launched a Russian Soyuz rocket at the station in October, while the rest of the crew launched into the station on SpaceX’s Crew-1 Crew Dragon spacecraft in November. They name the ship Resilience in part to honor humanity’s fight against the coronavirus.
Celebrating a New Year’s holiday in space is a little more tedious than it seems, but it’s a holiday for the station’s crew.
“The seven expedition 64 crew members aboard the International Space Station will see the New Year 16 times today and take the day on the first day of 2021,” NASA officials said in a statement.
The space station orbits the earth for about 90 minutes and makes 16 rounds around the planet every day, thus the potential for 16 New Year celebrations.
“The station orbits the earth at 17,500 kilometers per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour), giving the crew the opportunity to see 16 sunrises and sunsets every day,” NASA officials said. “The astronauts set their clocks at GMT, or Greenwich Mean Time, and begin their new year at 1:00 GMT on January 1, or five hours before Eastern Standard Time.”
Email Tariq Malik at [email protected] or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us on @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.