American astronauts on the International Space Station are starting this week with a day off today (Sept. 2) to mark the U.S. Labor Day holiday on Earth.
NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Christina Koch and Andrew Morgan have some extra time to call friends and loved ones, or simply relax and look down on Earth through the window. They just might spend time observing the massive Hurricane Dorian from space, like one of their fellow crewmates.
"Even astronauts need to chill," Koch wrote on Twitter today. "Spending this Labor Day weekend reading and relaxing by my favorite window. After a long week packed with science, a spacewalk, and a re-docking, it’' important to recharge your batteries to keep focused on bringing your best."
Related: Expedition 60: The Space Station Mission in Photos
Even astronauts need to chill. Spending this #LaborDay weekend reading and relaxing by my favorite window. After a long week packed with science, a spacewalk, and a re-docking, it’s important to recharge your batteries to keep focused on bringing your best. pic.twitter.com/EQzpzd14Q9September 2, 2019
Happy #LaborDay from our astronauts celebrating 250 miles above us in the International Space Station, where they perform important scientific experiments that help improve life on Earth and pave the way for our #Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond. ✨ pic.twitter.com/ce2RK934FBSeptember 2, 2019
Hague, Koch and Morgan make up half of the space station's current six-person Expedition 60 crew. Rounding out the team are Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin (the station's commander), cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano. It is Parmitano who has been capturing daily photos of Hurricane Dorian from the space station.
Hague, Koch and Ovchinin launched to the station in March of this year. While Hague and Ovchinin will return to Earth in October Koch is just over halfway through a nearly one-year mission to the space station, the first of its kind for a female astronaut. She'll return to Earth in February 2020, NASA officials have said.
"Happy Labor Day from our astronauts celebrating 250 miles above us in the International Space Station, where they perform important scientific experiments that help improve life on Earth and page the way for our Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond," NASA wrote in a Twitter message today. NASA's Artemis program aims to return astronauts to the moon by 2024.
Morgan, Skvortsov and Parmitano launched to the station on July 20. They'll return to Earth in December of this year.
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Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.