NASA Confirms Astronauts Will Get to Watch Star Wars: The Last Jedi in Space

Becoming a NASA astronaut stationed in orbit in the International Space Station is of course an honor reserved for only a small handful of human beings … but there are of course downsides. Chief among them: It’s a little hard to stay current on pop cinema while orbiting the Earth and attending to important scientific duties.

But exceptions are sometimes made, and what better time is there to make an exception than for Star Wars? NASA confirmed to Inverse today that astronauts aboard the ISS will get to watch Star Wars: The Last Jedi in a special screening in space. Spaceflight reporter Robin Seemangal broke the news via Twitter: “I received confirmation from Disney and NASA sources that the crew aboard the International Space Station will be screening Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”

Additional details are scant, but a NASA representative provided a few more tidbits to Inverse.

“[I] can confirm the crew will be able to watch it on orbit,” NASA Public Affairs Officer Dan Huot said. “Don’t have a definitive timeline yet. They typically get movies as digital files and can play them back on a laptop or a standard projector that is currently aboard.”

A SpaceX Dragon capsule is currently scheduled to head to the ISS on Friday, so it’s likely that a hard drive containing the film would be loaded aboard at that time. Precious cargo indeed.

The Last Jedi, directed by Rian Johnson, is garnering rave reviews so far, and is currently at a 93% fresh mark via Rotten Tomatoes. You can read our own (fairly positive) full-length review right here.