It's a nice publicity stunt for the 2018 World Cup. The Soyuz MS-08 crew, composed of two American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut, will be carrying the now-famous "Telstar 18," the World Cup's opening balloon, the very one that will be used this summer in Russia. Zero-gravity matches in sight?
The World Cup balloon at an altitude of 408,000 m...
Making a soccer ball fly 408 km (253 miles) high is a new and unusual record that even Lionel Messi and his sombrero trick will never be able to topple. And it's to a certain Oleg Artemiev that we owe this unusual initiative.
Indeed, the Russian cosmonaut at the helm of the Soyuz MS-08 recently decided to take the symbol of the 2018 World Cup with him aboard the International Space Station, as if to remind fans that the event will be played in Russia:
"We're taking the ball with us. It might be the one used for the first World Cup match."
Accompanied by two American astronauts, Drew Feustel and Richard Arnold, the seasoned 47-year-old cosmonaut also found it a good way to kill time between trajectory calculations. There's nothing like an improbable USA-Russia soccer match in zero gravity to kick off this Russian World Cup on a light note.
The return of Telstar 18—and incidentally, the Soyuz MS-08 crew—will take place just two weeks before the 2018 World Cup kicks off. We're willing to bet there's at least one replacement ball left on Earth in case of a mission problem...
No doubt the ball in question will become a collector's item once it returns home. Especially when you consider that sending 100 grams into space costs several thousand dollars...
First an electric car in Martian orbit, now a soccer ball in Earth's exosphere... when will we see a table football on the Moon?
