Earthed

How is time calculated for astronauts traveling around the earth faster than the earth rotates?

One revolution of the earth constitutes a 24 hour day. So, if the astronauts travel around the earth faster than the earth revolves in a 24 hour period, how is their time arrived at? And, just for fun, do they age faster?

Public Comments

1. They have to stay on the same clock as their flight control team.
   
   
   
   Do they age faster? Are they going faster than the speed of light?
2. With a clock :|
   
   24-hour days is something created by men to organize and measure time. In order to have accurate measurements the astronaut's clock has to be synchronized with their station on earth.
3. As far as I know, the clock of an astronaut remains the same as the clock from where they launched. There's no necessity to change their clock as they pass above the time zones.
   
   
   
   And would they age faster? No. They would actually age very slightly slower (by our observation), but not by any significant amount.
4. Astronauts and all the ground stations use UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) which used to be Greenwich Mean Time. The initials UTC are a compromise between English and French.
   
   
   
   English CUT (co-ordinated universal time)
   
   French TUC (temps universel coordonné)
   
   compromise UTC
5. They simply follow the clock they left on earth. In fact, they usually use a "mission" clock. Rime zero is when they take off and all reference is from there.
   
   
   
   Yes, they age slower than us because they're experiencing slightly different gravity due to their altitude and they have accelerated. They probably get a bonus of a few billionths of a second on their lives because of the mission.