This shot of the International Space Station was taken in Shenandoah National Park in Front Royal, Virginia, USA on Sunday, when the station flew against the backdrop of the Sun at a speed of 8 km / s.
At the International Space Station, rotating above the Earth at an altitude of about 400 km, there is currently an extended crew of nine people. On Saturday, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly assumed command of the orbital outpost from cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, the most experienced space pilot, who returns home on Friday. Throughout his career, Padalka spent almost 879 days in orbit.
As Kelly told reporters during a press conference on Tuesday during the flight, he and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko had already completed half of what was planned to be done during the year, but spending so much time in a confined space is so difficult that he doesn’t imagine I would feel if I flew to Mars.
“I’m not saying that I’m not ready psychologically for the rest of the (flight), but after half a way, I understand that much of what we have yet to do is very similar to what we did before. I admire people who will ever fly to Mars, ”said Kelly. Only great willpower helps sustain long-term flight, he added. “If you don’t have a steel rod inside, you never dare to be in a confined space for six months.”
Also aboard the station are NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Volkov, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, Danish cosmonaut Andreas Mogensen and Kazakh cosmonaut Aydin Aimbetov.
“It's a lot of fun here, and I enjoy working in such a populous society,” Yui told reporters, giving an interview through an interpreter.
Mogensen and Aimbetov, crew members performing a short-term flight, will return to Earth on Friday with Padalka aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
