What is daily life actually like for an astronaut living in orbit for a year?

Space · Published 8 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Scott Kelly, currently midway through a historic year-long mission on the International Space Station, offers a rare glimpse into the mundane realities of space. From the impossibility of doing laundry to the strange evolution of his dreams, life in orbit is a mix of high-stakes science and routine domestic chores.

In 2015, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko embarked on a landmark year-long mission aboard the International Space Station. This mission serves as a critical test for long-term human spaceflight, providing essential biomedical data required for future crewed journeys to Mars. As the mission reached its midpoint, Kelly participated in several high-profile interviews, including sessions with Katie Couric and Larry King, to address the public's persistent curiosity regarding life in microgravity.

The daily routine on the station is far from monotonous. Kelly describes a schedule defined by a constant rotation of scientific experiments—totaling over 400 throughout the mission—alongside essential maintenance, robotics operations, and occasional spacewalks. When hardware fails, such as the carbon-dioxide removal system, the crew must pivot to complex repairs. Housekeeping is a constant necessity, though some terrestrial habits are impossible to maintain. Laundry, for instance, is not performed because water is a precious resource and the engineering required for a space-based washing machine is impractical. Instead, crew members simply discard their clothing after extended use.

Beyond the technical demands, the crew finds ways to unwind. On weekends, the six-person team often gathers to watch movies. Kelly and fellow astronaut Kjell Lindgren have spent their downtime watching television series like Breaking Bad, while also introducing international crewmates to the shows. Interestingly, the psychological experience of spaceflight has also shifted for Kelly; he reports that while Earth-based dreams were common early in the mission, he now experiences space-themed dreams more frequently. This shift, observed around 150 days into his stay, highlights the profound, subtle ways that living in orbit alters the human experience.

The fascination with these mundane details—from what astronauts eat to how they sleep—underscores the gap between life on Earth and the reality of the orbital laboratory. By documenting these experiences, Kelly and his colleagues are not just conducting science; they are mapping the human capacity to adapt to an environment that remains, for most of humanity, a distant and captivating frontier.

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