Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla is present at the International Space Station for India. He and his three other companions have gone to space for 14 days under Astronauts AX-4 mission. It is a private mission, which has been operated by the Axiom Space Company. There are many questions about Shubhanshu’s Space Mission, how will the day and night be estimated at the space station, how many hours is there a day and which time zone works in the space?
90 minutes day at space station
There is sunrise and sunset once a day on earth, but in the international space station, there is a sunrise 16 times within 24 hours and sunset 16 times. According to this, there is only 90 minutes day and 90 minutes night, while on earth this period is 12-12 hours. The reason for this is that the space station revolves around the earth with very fast speed and it takes only 90 minutes to do so.
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The space station stays in the light of the sun for 45 minutes while circling the earth while the remaining 45 minutes remain in the shadow of the earth. Since the space station makes such a round of such a round within 24 hours, there is sunset 16 times and sunrise 16 times. If you talk about the time zone, then the cordened Universal Time (UTC) zone is used according to the global standards so that there is no problem in coordination with different countries of the world. This time zone is also called Greenwich Meen Time.
Which time zone is useful?
Astronauts of many countries work together at the space station and each country has its own time zone. The use of UTC brings all the mission control centers and astronauts under the same system, which is not only easy to communication but also makes it easy to give command. In space, Astronauts of countries like America, Russia, Britain and Japan work in a universal time zone.
What is the time on ISS right now?
If on 30 June 2025, Indian Standards Time (IST) is in India at 12:02 pm and because IST is 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of UTC. According to this, it will be at 6:32 am at the International Space Station at this time. This time is standard for all space missions, astronauts and mission control centers.
How to see time at space station?
Special watch is designed to calculate the time at the space station and the device is used. Computer and digital watches are used to know time on ISS, in which feeding is done according to UTC time zone. Apart from this, there are also digital displays which tell the time of different mission control centers, all these devices are synchronized with the UTC.
Apart from this, Atomic Watch is also used at the space station. These watches are absolutely accurate and are important in calculating time for scientific research in space. Although Atomic Watch is mainly used in research work, they are not used for everyday works. Along with the mission control centers of the earth, the time of the space station is also synchronized through radio signal.
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Astronauts that wearing digital watch are specially designed to work in the microgravity and vacuum of the space. For example, NASA used ‘Moonwatch’ for Apollo missions, which can work in the difficult conditions of space. The time is mainly detected through digital systems in space, but some astronauts use such watches in person.