Summary

Orbital tells the story of a day in the life of six astronauts on the International Space Station: two women, Chie from Japan and Nell from the United Kingdom, and four men, Shaun from the United States, Pietro from Italy and Anton and Roman, both from Russia. The chapters are split into each orbit of the Earth the astronauts make during the course of 24 hours on the space station. The opening chapter is called Orbit minus 1. The astronauts begin to wake up in the morning. The galley is decorated with party decorations from the night before.

Orbit 1, ascending, details the beginning of the day. Roman wakes up early. Roman keeps a written tally of the days he has been in space. The astronauts are told during training to keep a tally of time and stick to a daily schedule because seeing so...