In Houston, in the center where astronauts are trained, NASA explains that on board the ISS you can request to watch the games: there is also a precedent from 2014
In Houston, the city of NASA, known to all as “Space City”, they teach you to live with your eyes upwards and to look down only when you have reached your goal: it means you are flying in space. And who knows how we see, there among the stars, the great champions who landed in the United States, Canada and Mexico to aim decisively for the moon: the victory of the World Cup.
space station
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The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, named in honor of the Texan President of the United States from Stonewall, a town four hours’ drive west, is the training center for astronauts from all over the world. The shuttles depart from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Carneval, Florida, but those who aim for the stars are trained here, at NASA’s home, an hour’s drive from the streets of Houston, the fourth most populous center in America nicknamed “traffic city”, as the risk of getting stuck in traffic is very high. To get to the house – on the ground… – in space you have to aim for the Gulf of Mexico, which Trump has renamed the Gulf of America. You can visit NASA more or less every day, you can see the rockets, the moon rocks and even the famous spacesuits, but the question that arises once you get there, especially in this period, is easy to understand: “Are astronauts able to watch the World Cup matches?”. There are seven currently on board the International Space Station, dedicated to scientific research: the Americans Chris Williams, Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, the Frenchwoman Sophie Adenot and the three Russian astronauts Sergei Mikaev, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Andrey Fedyaev. The answer is yes: any of them can watch the games.
football in the stars
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Chelsey Ballarte, Public Affairs Specialist at the Johnson Space Center, interviewed in this regard, explained to us how: “Crew members can request that World Cup matches be broadcast to the station to watch during their free time. Since they follow a busy schedule of scientific activities, maintenance and other daily tasks, the time available for viewing may vary, but they are able to watch any type of match”. And not only that: “Astronaut Jessica Mier recently showed how a balloon behaves in microgravity in a demonstration carried out on board the orbiting laboratory”. The three Americans in orbit will have seen the great debut of the United States against Paraguay, while the French will have enjoyed Mbappe. The Russians will have remained neutral, or not looked at all.
the previous one from 2014
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Football in space was cleared more than a decade ago. In 2014, Americans Reid Wiseman and Steve Swanson and German Alexander Gerst watched Germany-United States 1-0 during the lunch break, played in the rain in Recife, Brazil. A glance at the porthole to check the clouds, another at the screen. Gest even launched a bet: “If the United States wins, the other two will draw a small American flag on my head; if Germany wins, I think they will have to shave their heads off.” Thomas Müller launched the Germans. Who knows if they kept their word.
pintus and nasa
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There is another Italian, in addition to Samantha Cristoforetti and Luca Parmitano – the latter was chosen as pilot of the Artemis III mission for 2017 – capable of getting noticed by NASA. Antonio Pintus, Real Madrid’s performance manager who moved to Inter, spent a week in Houston in 2024 to observe the astronauts’ preparation, implementing the training routine in space with specific exercises. The top brass was impressed with the use of data and technology to determine players’ physical conditions. Stories of excellence. Among the stars, that’s how it works.
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