The International Space Station (ISS) has been in the skies over our planet since 1998 when the first component was sent up. In the time that has passed since, over 230 people from 18 countries went to the station.
In case you forgot, astronauts are the best. Each crew that voyages to the International Space Station gets their own poster, and more than one crew used the opportunity to star in an epic pop culture remake.
The ISS has been continuously occupied since November 2000, with international crews of six taking turns to conduct various experiments in space. Yet very few of us down here on Earth know the names of the people that have been doing experiments in zero-G on our behalf.
So NASA plans to change that and has been working to promote astronauts to the wider community. They want to make astronauts the next big social media stars. NASA intends to make astronauts visible, desirable and just as big of influencer as vloggers and football players. As it should be.
The promo posters are part of NASA’s Space Flight Awareness group, which aims to “increase awareness of the Space Flight Program accomplishments, milestones and objectives with a focus on safety and mission success.” We’re not sure how astronauts pretending to be pirates helped keep them safe—but we’re sure glad they pretended to be pirates.
Going through the images below you'll see astronauts posing as the cast of Matrix (Expedition 16), a crew from a Federation starship (Expedition 21) and even as Pirates of the Caribbean (Expedition 30). There's even a Star Wars tribute on the poster for Expedition 45.
Which one is your favourite? Let us know in the comments section.
All Posters courtesy of NASA
Heres a link to the full archive of all Expeditions