Nasa astronauts recreate Star Wars poster for team photo

Nasa astronauts from Expedition 45 recreate a Star Wars poster for their team photo Credit: NASA

Holding light sabres and dressed as Jedi warriors the Nasa astronauts from one of the space agencies impending missions have brought some fun to their team photo by recreating the film poster from Star Wars.

Members of Expedition 45, which is due to launch this summer and take its crew to their year-long stint on the International Space Station, struck a pose for the poster this week as they marked the official announcement of their mission.

It is not the first time that Nasa astronauts have added a touch of fun to their team portrait though, as a look on the space agency's website shows that previous expedition crews have recreated everything from a Pirates of the Caribean film poster to the iconic Beatles album cover for Abbey Road.

Nasa astronauts from Expedition 26 recreate a Beatles poster for their team photo Credit: NASA

Expedition 45 crew members Scott Kelly, Oleg Kononenko, Mikhail Kornienko, Sergey Volkov, Kjell Lindgren and Kimia Yui are expected to begin their mission after their Soyuz docks with the space station in September.