The Expedition 45 crew has a September engagement with the International Space Station. It will be the first ISS crew to take on a year-long tour. To celebrate, NASA on Thursday released a clique poster, “International Space Station Expedition XLV: The Science Continues,” with a decidedly forceful theme.
Future @Space_Station crew dons Jedi robes for @StarWars-inspired #NASA poster: http://t.co/EFFhnhKnev #Exp45 pic.twitter.com/Z905fbJesh
— collectSPACE (@collectSPACE) February 12, 2015
There is a cultural beauty to seeing great works of science fiction permeate beyond boyhood daydreaming and into frontier-driven careers that run on grasping at stars. We’re seeing a generation of baby boomers turning toward their youthful touchstones and propelling the IRL space race.
Your crew is an international assembly that features American Scott Kelly; Chinese-born, Texas-made NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren; Russians Sergei Volkov, Mikhail Kornienko, and Oleg Kononenko; and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kimiya Yui. Star Wars is a strong international equalizer, though the whole thing was reportedly Lindgren’s idea.
Photo via NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center photostream/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)