Watch: Sunita Williams passes the torch as Nasa astronauts hold Summer Olympics in space
Nasa released a two-minute video on July 26, providing a glimpse into the astronauts’ fun-filled activities.The video begins with the passing of a mock Olympic torch among the crew members, starting with Jeanette Epps and ending with Butch Wilmore in the station’s Cupola, with Earth visible in the background.
The astronauts then prepare for their events, with Epps and Williams loosening up their arms, Wilmore stretching his upper body, and hydrating by drinking a floating water globule.
The orbital games commence with Barratt throwing a makeshift discus and Wilmore shotputting a ball of duct tape. Williams and Matthew Dominick perform gymnastics, while Epps sprints along an ISS corridor. Caldwell Dyson demonstrates her strength by lifting a bar held by Wilmore and Barratt.
Although the activities were lighthearted, the astronauts concluded by delivering a heartfelt message to the athletes participating in the 23rd Olympiad.
Dominick, surrounded by his fellow Nasa astronauts, expressed their enjoyment in pretending to be Olympic athletes and acknowledged the challenges of competing under Earth’s gravity.
He wished all the athletes “godspeed” on behalf of the ISS crew. “Over the past few days on the International Space Station, we’ve had an absolute blast pretending to be Olympic athletes,” Dominick said.
“We, of course, have had the benefits of weightlessness,” he added. “We can’t imagine how hard this must be, to be such a world-class athlete doing your sports under actual gravity. So from all of us aboard the International Space Station to every single athlete in the Olympic Games, godspeed!”
In addition to the six Nasa astronauts, the ISS is currently home to Russian cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenken, and Oleg Kononenko, who is the commander of the ongoing Expedition 71 mission.
Most of the crew members are serving the standard six-month ISS mission, with the exception of Williams and Wilmore, who arrived on Boeing’s new Starliner capsule on June 6 for an intended one-week stay.
However, their time in orbit has been prolonged as engineers investigate thruster issues and helium leaks on the spacecraft, with Nasa and Boeing yet to determine a departure date for Starliner.
