Here’s a SpaceX waltz you won’t see every day.
A fun (and acrobatic) video by astronauts on the International Space Station reveals the lighter side of space travel as the fly in formation in SpaceX spacesuits while preparing to return to Earth.
The new video, shared by European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer, shows the four astronauts of the Crew-3 mission by NASA and SpaceX as they took a break while checking their spacesuits last week. The video is set to the music of “The Blue Danube” waltz by Johann Strauss II and shows the astronauts performing intricate choreography as they sail by each other in weightlessness.
“In case anyone is wondering how astronauts check their spacesuits,” Maurer wrote as he shared the video on Twitter. “We call this the ‘suit fit waltz.’ I think I might miss microgravity and these antics with @Astro_Raja, @AstroMarshburn & Kayla.”
Strauss’ “Blue Danube” waltz has a long history of being set to spaceflight antics. In the 1968 science fiction film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” director Stanley Kubrick paired the music with a space plane trip to a space station to show the intricate ballet of spaceflight.
And in a more humorous approach, Homer Simpson floated gracefully through a space shuttle while chasing potato chips in the 1994 episode Deep Space Homer as Strauss’ iconic tune played in the background.
The Crew-3 astronauts apparently held a photo session in their SpaceX suits, too, snapping a portrait while in a wheel formation.
Maurer and his Crew-3 crewmates — NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron — returned to Earth May 6 on SpaceX’s Dragon Endurance to end a six-month mission to the International Space Station. The astronauts spent 176 days in space and splashed down off the coast of Tampa, Florida to cap their spaceflight.
The Crew-3 astronauts returned to Earth just over a week after SpaceX launched another crew to the space station for NASA. That mission, called Crew-4, launched three NASA astronauts and one European astronaut to the station on April 27 to start their own six-month trip.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.