Cosmonaut Gets Ready for Monster Tee-Off in Space

Nov. 20, 2006 — -- Tiger Woods is a better golf player than Mikhail Tyurin. But he will never match Russian cosmonaut for distance.

When Tyurin hits a golf ball this week, he will be on the International Space Station, 220 miles above the Earth, orbiting at 17,500 miles per hour. It will be a stunt staged for a Canadian golf club manufacturer Element 21 Golf Co. of Toronto, which paid the Russian Space Agency an undisclosed amount for the event.

Tyurin will float out of the Space Station along with American astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria for a six-hour spacewalk. Before they get down to serious work, golf will come first. This is how it is configured on the spacewalk timeline:

23:28 Secure tee on EVA ladder. Configure TV cam to operating position

23:38 Strike the ball. Desired trajectory: along ?SM axis, -VV, deviation 30 degrees, velocity 1 mps ± 0.2 mps

Stunt Aside, a Serious Mission

The gold stunt is the first event during a spacewalk with some serious tasks as well. Besides the golf swing, the spacewalkers need to check out an antenna on the Russian spacecraft Progress that seemed to fail when the supply ship docked at the space station last month.

How do you hit a golf ball in zero gravity? Tyurin will start by attaching a spring mounted tee shaped like an ice cream cone to the ladder next to the Pirs (Russian for "pier") airlock on the space station. He will then use a gold plated six iron to gently hit a gold plated golf ball into orbit.

The ball weighs about the same as three paper clips, 0.16 ounces -- much less than a standard golf ball, which is 1.6 ounces. Tyurin's hit will end up being the longest drive ever because this ball is expected to travel a couple million miles before it plunges into the Earth's orbit and burns up in two or three days.

Flight Director Holly Ridings, who is overseeing the spacewalk in Mission Control, says the golf stunt poses no danger to the space station.

"Tyurin will push the ball off backwards. There is absolutely no re-contact issue with the space station," she said.

The Commercialization of Space Exploration

This stunt for golf club manufacturer Element 21 commemorates the 35th anniversary of the first golf shot in space by astronaut Alan Shepard Jr. The spokesmen for Element 21 and the Russian Space Agency decline to say how much money the stunt costs.

The Russian Space Agency has long been strapped for cash so it regularly sells seats -- or advertising -- on the Soyuz spacecraft to anyone with a few million dollars to spare. Space tourist Anousheh Ansari spent $20 million earlier this fall for a ride on a Soyuz to the space station.

Earlier this year, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin acknowledged that his agency has little control over Russia's marketing of space.

"The space station partners have the right to propose and to conduct commercial activities on the station, provided that all appropriate safety considerations have been dealt with," he said. "We are not at the end of that particular road as yet, but we will pursue it."

Ensuring Safety

Engineers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston spent months analyzing the golf proposal to make sure it wouldn't jeopardize the International Space Station.

Once a golf ball launches off the space station into orbit it becomes space debris. The station is constantly monitored to make sure it won't collide with space debris.

The golf club that will be used in the spacewalk was developed by Element 21 Golf and is made of an alloy called scandium, which was used to build Russian MiG's and Russian segments of the International Space Station. Nataliya Hearn, president and CEO of Element 21 Golf, says scandium is lighter and stronger than titanium and graphite.

The golf club and balls were brought up to the space station in September 2005 on one of the Progress supply ships. The club will be brought back to Earth either on a return trip by the space shuttle or on one of the Soyuz trips. Hearn says that club will be auctioned off to raise money for charity.

What's the Next Sport in Space?

The golf ball can be tracked from Earth, much like the SuitSat experiment in which NASA launched from the International Space Station early this year. In that experiment, an old Russian spacesuit was tossed out of the station after it was fitted with a battery-powered radio transmitter. An antenna on the suit's helmet was used to send signals down to Earth.

SuitSats' batteries' fizzled just a few hours after it was launched. However, the golf ball in this week's stunt is gold-plated so it can be tracked by laser.

Nataliya Hearn admits training a cosmonaut to play golf wasn't easy; she says they generally play more hockey. Cosmonauts on the space station have been training for a year to make sure this golf swing doesn't go awry.

Thirty five years ago, astronaut Alan Shepard Jr. became the first person to hit a golf ball on the moon during the Apollo 14 mission -- and the ball is still sitting there. Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard and Ed Mitchell spent 33 ½ hours on the moon, nine hours and 23 minutes trudging on the lunar surface, exploring and sifting lunar dust. It was hard work.

When the work was finished, Shepard pulled out two golf balls and unfolded a collapsible golf club specially made for the occasion. He made the shot, despite thick gloves and a cumbersome spacesuit that forced him to swing the club with only one hand.

What's the next space sport? Frisbee. Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang, who will fly to the on the next shuttle mission, STS 116, is a champion player. He plans to set a record for the longest time aloft for a Frisbee.