The astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) may be isolated for the time being but it doesn't mean they're bored. Aside from tons of scientific experiments they need to perform, they get to play in microgravity as well.
Unless a person lives under a rock, everyone might have heard about the mannequin challenge proliferating on social media sites today. The craze had reached the ISS and the astronauts sent in their version of the challenge from space.
The European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Tomas Pesquet shared the video "Space Station Mannequin Challenge" on his Facebook page. The goal of the game is to create the most interesting and most realistic video of people pretending to be immobile mannequins. And it looks like the world has got a winner with the latest entry from space.
"On Sunday we generally have a day off with the crew and we often have a bit of fun in microgravity. We got the whole International Space Station crew together and took the #MannequinChallenge to new heights," ESA astronaut Tomas Pesquet said in a post. "The result is kind of sci-fi spooky don't you think?," Pesquet added.
The video showed five of the six Expedition 50 astronauts Robert Kimbrough, Peggy Whitson, Andrei Borinseko, Sergey Rizhikov, and Oleg Novitskiy, suspended in mid-air. Pesquet was not seen in the video since he took the footage.
According to NASA free time in space is important and is integrated into the schedule of the ISS crew. "Astronauts need a break from their busy schedules when they are orbiting Earth. Days or even months of straight work are certain to cause stress among space workers," a NASA official said in a statement. "That is why flight planners on Earth schedule time each day for astronauts to relax, exercise and have some fun," the official added.
This is not the first time the ISS crew took to new heights the things perceived as "cool" here on Earth. Last year, astronauts Tim Peake and Scott Kelly played using virtual reality version of Space Invaders aboard the ISS.