Crew members of the Expedition 45 mission to the International Space Station are not due to gather until September, but the crew got together early for their official portrait, decked out in Jedi robes and wielding lightsabers.
Thanks to the efforts of photographers and graphic artists from NASA's Johnson Space Center, the Expedition 45 crew's official portrait turned out perfectly, like a poster straight out of the Star Wars franchise.
Reportedly mission flight engineer Kjell Lindgren's idea, the portrait also features the crew's official mission patch, which uncannily resembles an Imperial Star Destroyer, a European Automated Transfer Vehicle and a Russian Soyuz rocket, which will be used by the crew to fly into orbit.
Expedition 45 has six members: Scott Kelly (mission commander); Oleg Kononenko, Mikhail Kornienko, Sergey Volkov, Kimiya Yui and Kjell Lindgren. Kelly and Kornienko will be flying to the ISS earlier in March to begin their mission as the one-year crew. Kononenko, Yui and Lindgren will be following in May and Volkov will be the last to arrive in September, alongside visiting flight engineer Andreas Morgensen and Spaceflight participant Sarah Brightman.
Expedition 45 will begin when all crew members are together. It will be Yui's first time in space.
As the first one-year crew, Kelly and Kornienko will be staying longer on the ISS than the rest of Expedition 45's members to run experiments that will help NASA facilitate long-term stays in space. They are due to return to Earth on March 2016 aboard the Soyuz 44.
Kelly is also participating in another NASA study with his twin brother Mark. The study aims to compare the effects of living in space with living on Earth, with the twins' genetic makeup offering a unique approach for comparison. The end goal of the study is to reduce as much risk as possible to astronauts venturing on long-term space missions. Scott has been on the space shuttle twice and once before in the ISS. Mark, on the other hand, has been to four flights on the space shuttle.
Other members of the Expedition 45 crew should be back by November, giving them enough time to get ready for the premiere of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, which will come out in December.
The Star Wars-inspired crew poster is the latest in a number created by NASA. In the past, portraits have parodied Tron, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Trek, The Beatles, Harry Potter and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
