And how did they choose that time? If they use Houston time (to be in synch with one of the mission controls) do they use daylight savings time?
My WAG is that they use GMT, to keep with the international feel of it.
NASA uses Houston time, though, although really they use MET (mission elapsed time; i.e., 104 hours, sixteen minutes).
They use something called Coordinated Universal Time (which is abbreviated UTC for some reason). Basically, it’s the same as Greenwich Mean Time (though there is a slight, subtle difference which isn’t important for our discussion). UTC is the standard time “zone” used by the astronomical community.
Coordinated Universal Time is really Universal Time Coordinated, hence the UTC. I’m not sure why we use the CUT here in the US.
The space station may use UTC to set the clocks, but are the astronauts on the same cycle? That is, do they wake up when the clock says 0800 UTC and go to bed when it’s 2300 UTC?
That’s what I’d like to know. I see news stories about how ‘This morning on the Space Station the Astronauts performed such and such’ and I stop and think ‘This morning?’
So GMT and UTC is six hours of Eastern Standard Time?
I believe so, or at least they keep odd schedules. I know they spend some time before a mission getting used to the sleep pattern they will be using in orbit, as though they’re going to a different time zone.
When I hear news reporters make such a statement, I take it to mean in the early morning in my (or the reporter’s) time zone.
I believe it’s a 5-hour difference.