Astronauts threw a pitch in space to rejoice the beginning of this yr’s World Collection.
4 crewmembers of the present Expedition 68 mission of the International Space Station stepped as much as the plate in space to rejoice Sport 1 of the World Collection, which noticed the Philadelphia Phillies narrowly win over the Houston Astros 6 to five on Friday (Oct. 29). However there may be time for a comeback, because the Astros took Sport 2 and the groups play Sport 3 of the best-of-seven sequence tonight (Oct. 31).
“We’re tremendous excited to observe the World Collection come again to Area Metropolis,” Expedition 68 NASA astronaut Josh Cassada says within the Oct. 29 video posted by Major League Baseball’s Twitter (opens in new tab) account, which briefly highlights the space station’s function in getting ready for future moon and Mars missions.
Quite a few crews have engaged in ball sports activities in orbit, starting from soccer to golf. Astronauts even pulled a Halloween trick in 2018, pretending they had been billiard balls in orbit to interact college students in STEM (science, expertise, engineering and math).
Associated: World Cup in space: Astronauts play cosmic soccer on space station
.@NASA’s Expedition 68 crew is prepared for Sport 1! #WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/Nx3O8wRJlIOctober 28, 2022
The 4 spaceflyers — NASA astronauts Josh Cassada, Nicole Mann and Frank Rubio and Japan’s Koichi Wakata — talked science within the video earlier than stepping apart for a ceremonial pitch. (The three different Expedition 68 crewmates — cosmonauts Anna Kikina, Dmitry Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev — don’t seem within the video.)
“We wished to take a second to want each groups good luck within the video games forward,” Mann says within the video, moments earlier than Rubio tosses a baseball softly to Wakata.
Wakata’s catch, simply in entrance of the digicam, is flawless — doubtless no shock on condition that the Japanese astronaut had 347 days of space expertise throughout 5 missions even before joining SpaceX’s Crew-5 mission, his newest tour.
The Phillies can have dwelling area benefit in Video games 3, 4 and 5 of the 118th version of the World Collection. If vital, the sequence will return to Houston (which had a greater regular-season file than Philadelphia) for Video games 6 and seven.
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a guide about space medication. Comply with her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
