Many people will spend this Christmas apart from their families — but none quite as far as astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Tom Marshburn. 🧑🚀 (hereandnow)
The two astronauts are orbiting the planet on the International Space Station. Marshburn says he and Vande Hei likely plan to work through Christmas – but not without a video call home to celebrate with their families.
“We were very pleasantly surprised that they had a nice spread for us,” Vande Hei says. “So it's fun to be up here with wonderful people.” “It's a very eye-opening experience,” he says. “And the space station is really supporting all of humanity so it gives us a very good sense of purpose.” Astronauts have a tough job: Vande Hei and Marshburn recently took shelter in a spacecraft when satellite debris threatened to crash into the space station. And they dealt with an ammonia leak earlier this year.“I think we're so well trained that we get simulations where everything goes wrong,” Vande Hei says. “So when we have something that goes wrong and it's not the full complement of wrongness, it feels like it's an easy simulation.
“We had some food and water with us and we just waited it out and didn't have any concerns. If we needed to, we knew that we could just depart the space station, ” he says, “but [I’m] glad it all worked out and we could stay on board.”Marshburn first went up to the space station in 2009 and he’s staying on for the 67th expedition when this rotation ends.
When Marshburn looks out the space station window, he can see clouds, a sunset and a lot of blue. This time of year, the space station is in orbit along what’s called the terminator, the line that separates day and night, so the astronauts often feel like they’re in the middle of a sunrise or sunset.
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