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Cosmonaut to Hit Golf Ball in Space

Posted on: Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 18:00 CST

By MIKE SCHNEIDER

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - In space, nobody can hear you scream "Fore!" Then again, "fore" isn't something Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin is likely to shout out Wednesday when he strikes a lightweight golf ball with a special 6-iron from outside the international space station in a promotional stunt for a Canadian golf club manufacturer.

Tyurin will be too busy trying to keep his balance during the one-handed swing in his bulky spacesuit. He'll have one foot wedged in between the hand rails of a ladder on the outside of the space lab. Fortunately, he'll be tethered, as astronauts are for all spacewalks.

And if you're disappointed over the lack of sound, sorry ... you won't be able to get a very good view of Tyurin's golf swing either - at least not in real time.

The cameras aren't in position on the Russian side of the space station, where the golf stunt will take place, although cameras on the U.S. side may be able to capture some distant images. Tyurin's crewmate will set up a camera to record it for the golf club maker, E21 Golf, to use later.

The golf stunt is the first task for Tyurin and U.S. astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria during a six-hour spacewalk set to begin around 6 p.m. EST. Their other jobs are more like real work - fixing a space station antenna and retrieving science experiments.

The golf stunt was supposed to take place earlier this year but was delayed, NASA officials said.

"I've been practicing ... I think I'm in good enough shape," Tyurin told The Associated Press last week from the space station.

E21 paid an undisclosed sum for the stunt, which company officials have said commemorates the 35th anniversary of astronaut Alan Shepard's memorable golf swing on the moon during the Apollo 14 mission in 1971.

It follows other commercial ventures at the space station that the Russian space agency has allowed, sometimes to the chagrin of NASA, such as bringing aboard paying tourists. The cash-strapped Russians also have allowed Pizza Hut to paint its logo on a rocket and have a pizza delivered to the space station. And it once charged PepsiCo $5 million to have cosmonauts float a replica of a soda can outside the Mir space station.

NASA has taken a grin-and-bear-it attitude. The U.S. space agency is indebted to its Russian partner for flying U.S. astronauts to the space station while shuttles were grounded after the Columbia disaster.

The weight of the golf ball is 3 grams, only about 1/15th the weight of a normal golf ball. That's to minimize any damage should it actually strike something. NASA predicts the ball will re-enter Earth's atmosphere in three days and isn't a threat to either the space station or the shuttle Discovery, set to launch Dec. 7.

Tyurin, a novice golfer who got training on Earth from pros, will have three golf balls for as many tries. The balls will be held in place by a spring-like tee which surrounds the ball. The tee is attached to a handrail on the outside of the space station.

If Tyurin has trouble balancing himself, Lopez-Alegria will hold him in place.

Although Tyurin is unlikely to pull a Tiger Woods and demand silence during his swing, the space station's deputy program manager, Kirk Shireman, joked that at Mission Control, "We'll all be talking in very hushed voices."

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On the Net:

Element 21 Golf at http://www.e21golf.com/

NASA at http://www.nasa.gov

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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