Watch What Happens to Astronauts When the International Space Station Gets an Orbital Reboost

This is similar to going down the slide on the playground and then getting back in line to go down again. Except in space.

When the International Space Station has a reboost, here is what it looks like. The astronauts are inside the station, but the Space Station is moving around them. The video is sped up eight times. It still looks fun!

17 seconds had a Delta-V of 1.34 meters/second for a previous burn with a duration of 12 minutes.

The crew is made up of NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, and Mark Vande Hei, as well as the European Space Agency's Matthias Maurer, and the Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov.

The astronauts are having a good time. It feels like you are being pushed back into the seat when the vehicle is speeding, but in reality, the seat is being pushed into you.

The International Space Station usually flies over the Earth at a rate of about 400 km per hour. The station can lose as much as 100 meters a day due to the effects of atmospheric drag. Reboosts are usually required once a month. When a reboost is done, the density of Earth's atmosphere at those altitudes constantly changes, as how much energy is being fed into it by the Sun is not known. The rate of decay is not always constant.

Reboosts are done to improve the station's position for future visitors. This particular reboost was performed in March of 2022. The station was put at the correct altitude by firing its engines for several minutes.

The Russian segment and Progress cargo craft are used for station reboost, attitude control, debris avoidance maneuvers, as well as eventual deorbit operations. The U.S. provides attitude control or controlling the orientation of the station. When the gyros reach their control limits, Russian thrusters are used for attitude control and recovery.

Although it is currently in testing mode, the only U.S. commercial spaceship that can provide reboosts is Cygnus. The first Cygnus capable of performing reboosts arrived at the International Space Station.