Astronauts at the International Space Station are preparing to tee off as they attempt a golf shot in space
By: Captain Maverick
Published: Nov 17, 2006
Updated: Sep 2, 2010
International Space Station astronauts are going to attempt one of the longest tee shots ever. Flight commander Mikhail Tyurin will whack the golf ball as part of a six-hour spacewalk planned for the night before Thanksgiving. Joining him will be commander Michael Lopez-Alegria. Flight engineer Thomas Reiter will remain inside the station tending to systems during the spacewalk.
This will be a one-handed golf shot where the Russian cosmonaut will hit between one to three golf balls away from the space station. The shots are part of a publicity stunt to promote a new line of golf clubs by Element 21, a Canadian Golf club manufacturer. The balls are extremely lightweight, weighing only 1 gram each.
This is not the only work they will be doing. Another major task scheduled for the spacewalk is the installation of hardware designed to measure charged and neutral particles in low-Earth orbit. The space-walkers will also reposition a navigation antenna that will aid the automated docking of a future European cargo ship, and assess whether an antenna used to help dock Progress 23 last month is fully retracted.
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