Do astronauts change their clocks when they move over different time zones in space?

Question

Do astronauts change their clocks when they move over different time zones in space?

Answer 1

you know, the German contribution to the ISS was 6 wind-up cuckoo clocks, and as the station is in a 90 min orbit, passing over 24 time-zones, that means that they have 3min 45 sec to set all 6, or about 38sec each.

it keeps them busy.

Answer 2

Nah, the American astronauts use GMT, and the Russian cosmonauts use whatever time it is in Moscow.

Answer 3

That would be about once per minute, so no.

Answer 4

No. They use different time zones during their mission. The most common is Greenwich Mean Time or GMT, which gets used for the ISS and the Space Shuttle. Next, there is the Mission Elapsed Time or MET, which is the time passed since lift-off. This time is similar to the Ground Elapsed Time or GET used for Apollo.

Russian spacecraft also use Moscow time zone as reference, additionally to MET.

Finally, all spacecraft also use relative timings - like 30 minutes before the Deorbit burn or 15 minutes after docking.

An astronaut on the ISS will likely have his own clock tuned for GMT and keeps it there.

Answer 5

No they would be set at the time of the country they originated. More correctly, they should be set at GMT which is where time is measured from. Also known as Universal Standard Time.