The crew at the International Space Station (ISS) has sent New Year's wishes from the space.
The arrival of 2015 is celebrated in different ways by different people and societies. The ISS crew members may not be able to celebrate New Year as people do at the Times Square in New York, but they have sent their New Year's greeting to everyone on Earth through video.
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has uploaded a clip on YouTube with Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore and flight engineer Terry Virts wishing the world a "Happy New Year."
Wilmore has been at the ISS since late September this year, and the space station will be his home until mid-March 2015. However, Virts is relatively new at the ISS; he joined the crew in November and will come back to Earth in mid-May 2015.
"We did a little calculating and we figure we will be over midnight somewhere over the Earth, 16 times throughout this day. So we plan to celebrate New Year's 16 times with our comrades, our people down on Earth that are doing it at that very moment, so we're going to do the same thing, that's our plan," said Wilmore from space.
On Nov. 23, Russian spacecraft Soyuz took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:01 p.m. EST and reached the ISS at 9:48 p.m. on the same day. The spacecraft delivered three astronauts, including Virts. It also carried Samantha Cristoforetti, Italy's first female astronaut. Now, she will be the first Italian woman to celebrate the New Year in space.
Not everyone can celebrate New Year's eve in space, and astronauts onboard the ISS may have a different way of celebrating New Year's eve, floating in zero gravity. However, being away from family and friends may not be that great for the ISS crew. To make the New Year's eve a bit special for the ISS crew members, one Soyuz delivery included 15 boxes of 30g each of caviar, which will be used by the astronauts to celebrate the New Year.
Check out the video where Wilmore and Virts wish "Happy New Year" to everyone on Earth.
