٠٠:٠٣:٠٥Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov answered questions about life on the International Space Station (ISS) - including the difference in days and nights, what it's like to cry in space, and why no-one ever washes their clothes - in footage shot on Sunday.
"If you look out of the porthole, day and night are fictitious for us on the one hand, but on the other they are quite clear and understandable. <...> You can wait a very long time for the sunset, but it will never come because the orbits happen to coincide and we are always on the sunny side. In terms of our working day, we live on Greenwich Mean Time," he said.
The ISS completes a full orbit around the Earth in about 92 minutes, so day and night change 16 times a day. However, there are some days when the station's orbit matches the Sun's movement and there is no sunset at all.
He also explained what it was like to cry in space. According to him, tears would not run down a person's face due to the lack of gravity.
"The tears will collect here, in the eye area. It will be a bit unusual and you'll want to keep wiping them or dabbing them with something, because otherwise the liquid will collect quite a lot and you won't be able to see anything, as if you've opened your eyes underwater," Borisov added.
The cosmonaut also discussed why there was no need to wash clothes on the ISS.
"We don't wash our clothes, we only wear new ones. <...> Here, this is a polo shirt, seven days' use. Another shirt. And this is a T-shirt and socks. Three days' use. And I have a whole bag of these sets. Accordingly, every three days I can change them, and, of course, we throw away the old clothes. We put them in the cargo ship, which undocks and burns up in the atmosphere," Borisov noted.
Borisov arrived at the ISS aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon with the Crew-7 expedition on August 27.
The crew also included NASA astronaut and Crew-7 commander Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa.
Borisov is the third Russian cosmonaut to travel to the ISS aboard a SpaceX rocket, after Anna Kikina and Andrey Fedyaev, who arrived at the station in October 2022 and March 2023 respectively.
Quiz the cosmonaut! Borisov opens up about the day-night challenge, crying in space and why no-one washes their clothes
Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov answered questions about life on the International Space Station (ISS) - including the difference in days and nights, what it's like to cry in space, and why no-one ever washes their clothes - in footage shot on Sunday.
"If you look out of the porthole, day and night are fictitious for us on the one hand, but on the other they are quite clear and understandable. <...> You can wait a very long time for the sunset, but it will never come because the orbits happen to coincide and we are always on the sunny side. In terms of our working day, we live on Greenwich Mean Time," he said.
The ISS completes a full orbit around the Earth in about 92 minutes, so day and night change 16 times a day. However, there are some days when the station's orbit matches the Sun's movement and there is no sunset at all.
He also explained what it was like to cry in space. According to him, tears would not run down a person's face due to the lack of gravity.
"The tears will collect here, in the eye area. It will be a bit unusual and you'll want to keep wiping them or dabbing them with something, because otherwise the liquid will collect quite a lot and you won't be able to see anything, as if you've opened your eyes underwater," Borisov added.
The cosmonaut also discussed why there was no need to wash clothes on the ISS.
"We don't wash our clothes, we only wear new ones. <...> Here, this is a polo shirt, seven days' use. Another shirt. And this is a T-shirt and socks. Three days' use. And I have a whole bag of these sets. Accordingly, every three days I can change them, and, of course, we throw away the old clothes. We put them in the cargo ship, which undocks and burns up in the atmosphere," Borisov noted.
Borisov arrived at the ISS aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon with the Crew-7 expedition on August 27.
The crew also included NASA astronaut and Crew-7 commander Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa.
Borisov is the third Russian cosmonaut to travel to the ISS aboard a SpaceX rocket, after Anna Kikina and Andrey Fedyaev, who arrived at the station in October 2022 and March 2023 respectively.
Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov answered questions about life on the International Space Station (ISS) - including the difference in days and nights, what it's like to cry in space, and why no-one ever washes their clothes - in footage shot on Sunday.
"If you look out of the porthole, day and night are fictitious for us on the one hand, but on the other they are quite clear and understandable. <...> You can wait a very long time for the sunset, but it will never come because the orbits happen to coincide and we are always on the sunny side. In terms of our working day, we live on Greenwich Mean Time," he said.
The ISS completes a full orbit around the Earth in about 92 minutes, so day and night change 16 times a day. However, there are some days when the station's orbit matches the Sun's movement and there is no sunset at all.
He also explained what it was like to cry in space. According to him, tears would not run down a person's face due to the lack of gravity.
"The tears will collect here, in the eye area. It will be a bit unusual and you'll want to keep wiping them or dabbing them with something, because otherwise the liquid will collect quite a lot and you won't be able to see anything, as if you've opened your eyes underwater," Borisov added.
The cosmonaut also discussed why there was no need to wash clothes on the ISS.
"We don't wash our clothes, we only wear new ones. <...> Here, this is a polo shirt, seven days' use. Another shirt. And this is a T-shirt and socks. Three days' use. And I have a whole bag of these sets. Accordingly, every three days I can change them, and, of course, we throw away the old clothes. We put them in the cargo ship, which undocks and burns up in the atmosphere," Borisov noted.
Borisov arrived at the ISS aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon with the Crew-7 expedition on August 27.
The crew also included NASA astronaut and Crew-7 commander Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa.
Borisov is the third Russian cosmonaut to travel to the ISS aboard a SpaceX rocket, after Anna Kikina and Andrey Fedyaev, who arrived at the station in October 2022 and March 2023 respectively.