Space is full of wonders, and never fails to surprise the world. Sunrises are always heavenly, and appear spellbinding when combined with the beauty of the cosmos. Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who is a part of Expedition 68, has captured a video of the first sunrise of 2023 in outer space, from the International Space Station (ISS).
The video shows the exact moment the Sun appeared above Earth's horizon for the first time this year. The Japanese Experiment Module, or Kibo Space, a Japanese science module for the ISS developed by the Japanese Aerospace and Exploration Agency (JAXA), shared the video on Twitter, and said the "miraculous moment" is a first in human history, when the beginning of the new year and sunrise in space occurred at the same time. Kibo is the only space broadcasting station in the world that connects space and the ground in both directions.
People worldwide are left awestruck by the spectacle. STS-131 astronaut Naoki Yamazaki called it a "powerful video of space sunrise.
How Expedition 68 crew members spent the holidays on the ISS
Expedition 68 crew members Josh Cassada, Nicole Mann, and Frank Rubio of NASA, Koichi Wakata of JAXA, and Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin, and Anna Kikina of Roscosmos celebrated Christmas 2022 on the space station. The crew members also recorded a holiday message for everyone on Earth, sharing some of their personal traditions for the holidays.
Cassada, Wakata and Rubio shared a meal on Christmas Eve inside the ISS, and shared a picture of the same.
Mann also posed for a festive portrait on Christmas Eve. Rubio, Cassada and Mann continued work to service the spacesuits used by Rubio and Cassada to install a new ISS Roll-out Solar Array.
On December 29, Wakata monitored the deployment of eight CubeSats from Kibo.
The crew members also performed research and maintenance activities on the space station.
The SpaceX CRS-26 cargo Dragon spacecraft will depart from the space station on January 9, carrying valuable scientific research samples. The Dragon spacecraft will splash down off the Florida coast on January 11.