NASA is sending real Jedi Knights into space (well, on a poster, anyway)

There's a new Star Wars movie coming out this year, so it makes sense that lightsabers would be on a lot of minds these days. As it turns out, real-life astronauts are not immune to a little fanboy hype. The next crew of astronauts NASA is sending up to the International Space Station - Expedition 45 - picked up their lightsabers and donned their nicest Jedi Knight robes for an awesome poster.

Expedition 45 will be undertaken by the "One-Year Crew," as they will be the first to spend an entire year on the station. Russian cosmonauts have spent a year in space before, but Expedition 45 Commander Scott Kelly will be the first American astronaut to accomplish that goal. He will be joined by Oleg Kononenko, Mikhail Kornienko, Sergey Volkov, Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui.

All of them appear in the awesome Star Wars-inspired photo below.

It's not the first time a space station crew has done their own take on a space-themed movie. Expedition 42 took amazing advantage of their number with a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy parody.