NASA takes Snapchat to the International Space Station for a day
On Monday, May 16, the International Space Station made its mind-boggling 100,000th orbit around the Earth. The first module of the ISS, humanity's longest-running habitable artificial satellite, was launched on Nov. 20, 1998, and completes one orbit approximately every 90 minutes.
This allows astronauts to see 16 sunsets and sunrises per day.
To celebrate the occasion, NASA is showing off what a day in space is like for astronaut and Space Station commander Tim Kopra, via Snapchat.
You May Also Like
NASA's "Day in Space" can be found in the form of a Snapchat Live Story, accessible through the three-lined icon in the bottom right of Snapchat's main screen.
In the videos, you'll see some beautiful images of the Earth from above, find out about astronauts' favorite foods and, of course, see the obligatory floating water bubble swallowing trick performed by Kopra.
In a couple of the snaps, Kopra is shown eating tortillas, a long-time favorite food of astronauts living and working on the Space Station.
NASA and other international space partners prefer to have astronauts eat tortillas instead of bread on the station because bread can be crumbly, a hazard in the weightlessness of the station.
Instead, astronauts use tortillas for everything from burgers to (of course) tacos.
Some of the videos appear to have been shot at least a week ago.
One of the snaps shows Kopra floating in front of a SpaceX Dragon capsule, which was attached to the Space Station for about a month until last week, when it left the orbiting outpost and delivered cargo, trash and science experiments back to Earth.
Another private cargo ship, the Cygnus, also makes an appearance in the story.
The Dragon and Cygnus spacecraft are the two privately-built ships that can fly cargo to the Space Station under a contract with NASA.
Kopra also shows viewers the Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft that will take him and his five fellow crewmembers back to Earth when the time comes.
Kopra, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and British astronaut Tim Peake will fly home in June, while NASA's Jeff Williams and cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka remain onboard until September.
And even NASA loves a good Harry Potter reference, especially on Snapchat.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Topics Snapchat
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
