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Cosmonauts at ISS to have opportunity of welcoming the New Year fifteen times

Station crewmembers will celebrate the New Year for the first time at midnight Moscow time, when ISS will fly over the Hawaii

MOSCOW, December 31. /TASS/. Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov currently working in the crew onboard the International Space Station (ISS) will have the opportunity to see the New Year in for fifteen times, the Russia’s Roscosmos state space corporation said on Friday.

"Cosmonauts and astronauts working now on board of ISS will cross time zones where the New Year is already in for fifteen times.

According to the Mission Control Center, the Station will fly over the Pacific to the north of the Marshall Islands at 15:44 Moscow time, where there will be an opportunity to celebrate the holiday for the first time.

Station crewmembers will celebrate the New Year for the first time at midnight Moscow time, when ISS will fly over the Hawaii. "Two hours later, when ISS will be to the south of the Easter Island, the New Year will come to Germany, whose native is Matthias Maurer, the ESA astronaut. The date in the Greenwich calendar will change one hour later. The ISS work schedule is linked exactly to this time zone," Roscosmos said.

NASA representatives Mark Vande Hei, Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron will receive Season’s Greetings at 08:00 am Moscow time because it will be the midnight in Washington. The New Year under the Houston time can be celebrated one hour later.

"When it will be as much as 13:24 in Moscow, the ISS will fly over the Hawaii, the last point on the globe where January 1 will come," Roscosmos added.

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