Star Wars screening on space station

Being in space doesn't mean you have to miss the latest instalment of the Star Wars movie series. Photo / NASA

As Star Wars fans flock to the movie theatres this week, astronauts, too, will be able to watch the next instalment of the series's new trilogy — while floating 350km above Earth.

Very few details are available, but Nasa spokesman Daniel Huot confirmed that the International Space Station crew will watch The Last Jedi in orbit. There's no timeline yet on when the screening will be.

The Last Jedi, the second of the Star Wars sequel trilogy following The Force Awakens, which was released in 2015, comes out in theatres this week.

It's not unusual for astronauts aboard the ISS to have movie nights. Huot said astronauts typically receive digital files that they play on a laptop or a standard projector.

Astronaut Scott Kelly tweeted about one movie night in 2015: "#Movie night in micro #Gravity aboard #ISS on our new HD projector which we use for conferences, tech software, etc."

Former station astronaut Greg Chamitoff and his crew mates also watched the Star Trek series every week. In 2009, astronaut Michael Barratt watched the new Star Trek movie on a laptop after Nasa's mission control in Houston transferred it via satellite.

Nasa said the ISS has a collection of digital movies and DVDs, which were delivered during previous shuttle and station missions.

Last year, Gizmodo reporter Matt Novak, through a Freedom of Information Act request, obtained a complete list of movies and TV shows available for the ISS crew. It runs the gamut, from classic films such as the Godfather series, to action-comedy movies like Beverly Hills Cop, to shows like House of Cards and Modern Family." There's also a supply of sci-fi, action and space movies — Aliens, Armageddon, Captain America, Mission: Impossible and Gravity are a few examples.