FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Tech

​ISS Astronauts Send Endearingly Awkward New Year’s Greetings

They’re badasses, but they’re still nerds, too.
Rachel Pick
New York, US

Astronauts are supposed to be really cool. After all, they're the badass, fearless individuals all five-year-olds aspire to be. But this New Year's video greeting card sent to Earth by some of the crew of the International Space Station proves that astronauts, while indeed fearless, are also endearingly sweet nerds in khaki pants who sometimes have trouble nailing a space backflip.

Commander Scott Kelly and Flight Engineer Tim Kopra from NASA and Flight Engineer Tim Peake of the European Space Agency wished everyone on Earth a happy new year, and thanked the teams on the ground who support their efforts onboard.

Peake and Kopra just joined the ISS on December 15th for six-month missions, while Kelly is starting the last several months of his year-long stint on the station. Along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, Kelly is half of the One Year Crew, a mission intended to measure the effects of a year in space on the mind and body. Engineer Peake is the first British astronaut to ever visit the ISS.

But despite these guys' impressive credentials, they couldn't nail their synchronized zero-gravity somersault. Maybe next year.