Golfing In Space

by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger

24 Nov 2006 01:02 PM

I dated a golfer for about three years while I was in college, and subsequently took up the sport in an effort to help "build" our relationship. He helped me appreciate the game for its challenges and its rewards. Personally, I thought it was more challenging than rewarding, which is why I can't believe that someone attempted to tee up in space.

It's true. Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin managed to launch a super-lightweight golf ball into orbit (news video showed him shanking his shot) two days ago---yet people are still talking about it.

According to news reports, Tyurin used a gold-plated six-iron and hit the drive from a spring-like tee outside the international space station, 220 miles over the northwest Pacific Ocean. The shot veered to the right, but was hailed as a success by Moscow Mission Control. The entire event was the kick off to a planned six-hour space walk... and a promotional stunt as well.

A Toronto firm paid the financially strapped Russian space agency an undisclosed amount for the golf stunt to promote its new golf club that includes a space-program-derived metal. So, did the shot meet with the company's approval?

According to the president of Element 21 Golf Company (the company that set up the stunt), the cosmonaut's drive went "a billion miles -- or will by the time it eventually comes down in a couple years." However, according to NASA: "That's a huge exaggeration." By NASA's calculations the golf ball would only stay up two to three days, which would put the drive closer to a mere million miles. Just how far the golf ball travels won't be known until the ball burns up and enters Earth's atmosphere. The ball weighs 3 grams, only about 1/15th the weight of a normal golf ball. It weighs less to minimize any damage should it actually strike something.

While is a veteran space walker, Tyurin considers himself a "rookie golfer." Adding to the challenge was the fact that he was tethered to the space station and had an American astronaut holding on to him. After the shot, Tyurin told Moscow Mission Control he was going to pass on hitting the other two balls he was scheduled to drive into space.

By the way, Tyurin's shot was not the first in space. Astronaut Alan Shepard took a swing on the moon during the Apollo 14 mission in 1971.

Learn more about Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism.

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