The Adidas Telstar 18 was tested in space during an improvised soccer match on May 31, which showed the 2018 FIFA World Cup ball behaves…
The Adidas Telstar 18 was tested in space during an improvised soccer match on May 31, which showed the 2018 FIFA World Cup ball behaves admirably in zero-g.
Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, Norishige “Neemo” Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA astronaut Scott “Maker” Tingle successfully landed back on Earth earlier today, and they didn’t come home alone. The trio brought back on terra firma the official ball of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, that is scheduled to take place in Russia from June 14 through July 15.
“That was a good ride!” said Tingle as the Soyuz capsule made its way down toward the Kazakhstan grassland.
As soon as the capsule touched down in the steppe, a Russian-led recovery team rushed to meet the astronauts, along with medical personnel from NASA and JAXA.
The ISS crew looked to be in good health and in a good mood to boot, and Shkaplerov reportedly asked for a bowl of fresh grapes.
After 168 days in space, three @Space_Station crewmembers are back on Earth, landing at 8:39am ET. Watch: https://t.co/dWgF5CYiwl pic.twitter.com/Ek57iqAAZ2
— NASA (@NASA) June 3,2018
“We’re feeling a bit tired. At the same time, we’re proud to have accomplished it and we are glad to be back on Earth. We are glad that the weather is beautiful, it is sunny. And the landing was ‘soft’,” said the Russian astronaut, who was Commander of the now-ended Expedition 55.
With Shkaplerov now back on Earth, the space station fell under the command of NASA astronaut Drew Feustel, who will lead Expedition 56 starting today.
Feustel is accompanied on board the ISS by NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold and cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, who incidentally took the 2018 FIFA World Cup ball into orbit during his March 24 spaceflight to the ISS.
Russian cosmonauts play football with the official FIFA World Cup ball Telstar-18 onboard International Space Station; the #WorldCup2018 will start on June 14 and take place in 11 cities across Russia pic.twitter.com/tdKkHnu8xt
— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) June 1,2018
“An official Telstar 18 ball was especially brought to the space station for this purpose and the ball planned to be returned to Earth together with the crew of the Soyuz MS-07 manned spacecraft on June 3,” Roscosmos announced after the space match.
Shkaplerov also commented on the cosmic sports event on June 1, posting a video of the match on Twitter. The footage shows the cosmonauts trying to score Telstar 18 using improvised targets, such as a square entrance to the Harmony module onboard the ISS.
This is the first World Cup hosted by Russia and will be held at 12 stadiums located in 11 Russian cities, two of which are in Moscow.
