Categories: Space Station

What’s It Like Inside the Space Station During a Re-boost?

Ever wonder what it would be like on board the Starship Enterprise when Capt. Kirk commands Mr. Sulu to fire the thrusters, only to have the artificial gravity turn off at the same time? We’ve got our own 21st century equivalent of a big spaceship — the International Space Station — firing its thrusters in order to stay in a good orbit around Earth. And since we haven’t invented artificial gravity yet, you can see what happens. In the video are Expedition 29 Commander Mike Fossum and Flight Engineers Satoshi Furukawa and Sergei Volkov, demonstrating what it is like to experience the acceleration from firing the thrusters.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/