Astronauts Will Watch 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' in Space!

There may not be any movie theaters in space, but that won't stop the Expedition 54 crew from watching the new "Star Wars" movie aboard the International Space Station.

"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" hits movie theaters on Earth today (Dec. 15), and NASA has beamed up a digital copy of the film to the space station, so the astronauts on board won't miss out on any of the action — and they won't need to worry about any spoilers from those who have seen the movie on Earth.

"I can confirm that the astronauts will get a chance to view the film in space, but [I] don't have a timeline for when at this time," NASA spokesman Dan Huot told Space.com in an email. [The Greatest "Star Wars" Villains Ever]

International Space Station Expedition 45 crewmembers watch an advance screening of "The Martian" movie on Sept. 19, 2015. (Image credit: NASA)

There are currently three crewmembers aboard the space station: NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin. Three more crewmembers are expected to arrive on Sunday (Dec. 17), so the crew may hold off on screening the film until all six members of Expedition 54 can watch the movie together. Another trio of space travelers departed the space station and returned to Earth early this morning, arriving just in time for the worldwide release of "The Last Jedi."

While the astronauts in space don't have a movie theater with a giant screen, they do have a special projection screen and a high-definition projector that they can use to watch movies and the occasional football game. In 2015, astronauts also watched "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" on their zero-g projection screen.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.