Sports in Space
Astronaut Says Quidditch May Be Space's Perfect Sport
It is something innate to human beings — wherever we go, we must play. Sport is inevitable, even in space, as was demonstrated this week when astronaut Garrett Reisman threw out the ceremonial first pitch for a Yankees-Red Sox baseball game from the International Space Station.
It's not the first time a pitch has been thrown from space. In 1995, the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia threw out a pitch before game five of the World Series between the Atlanta Braves and the New York Yankees.
Baseball in space isn't new, not that anyone can organize a team with three people on the space station, but astronauts usually bring mementos from their favorite teams into orbit with them.
Astronaut Michal Lopez Alegria brought a baseball from the 1984 World Series to the space station last year; it was autographed by then-baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth. His colleague, Suni Williams, was a rabid Red Sox fan who ran during the Boston Marathon on a treadmill onboard the space station.
What games do the astronauts actually play on the space station?
Cmdr. Peggy Whitson organizes relay races. Whitson says it's a lot of fun, but admits it is slightly hazardous.
"We had two teams of three astronauts and we raced from one end of the space station, relayed with a person waiting at the other end three modules away and raced back and set up with a third person," Whitson said. "It was pretty fun."
Her team won.
Reisman says they accidentally discovered another sport they could play while filling up water bottles.
"We realized how massive these bags were and we started tossing them kind of like a medicine ball," Reisman said. "Then you realize you could toss and catch and go for a ride on this big thing as it takes you away. There are all kinds of possibilities and if there are any ideas out there let us know and we will try it."
Footballs, Frisbees, boomerangs, all kinds of sports paraphernalia have also gone into orbit.
Christer Fuglesang was the first Swedish astronaut to fly into space. He brought a Frisbee with him to see if he could break the world record for time aloft — 16.72 seconds — which he did, aided by zero gravity.
