Astronaut Scott Kelly Stops Off At Super Bowl During His Year In Space
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly managed to make a quick stop at the Super Bowl, snapping a picture of the massive sporting event from the International Space Station.
Thanks to clear skies, Kelly managed to grab a great shot of the San Francisco 49ers’ home stadium and this year’s Super Bowl venue from 400km above the Earth.
He tweeted the impressive snap with the words: “Got to see the #SuperBowl in person after all! But at 17,500PH, it didn’t last long.”
Kelly, who is spending a year aboard the ISS, also tweeted an image of the Super Bowl being screened on an otherwise empty portion of the space station, quipping: “Hosted Super Bowl party on @space_station, but no one showed up. I would have served nachos!”.
Super Bowl 50 is shown on a large screen on the ISS (Scott Kelly/NASA)
Space station Commander Kelly is spending 12 months in orbit as part of the Year In Space study.
His identical twin brother, and former astronaut, Mark Kelly is acting as a control for the study on Earth, so that data between the two can be compared.
The idea is to gather information on how long-term stays in space affect the body - insights which will be critical for deep space missions to Mars.
Kelly has almost completed his record-breaking stay and is due to return to Earth in March.
On Saturday, British astronaut Tim Peake watched England’s opening Six Nations match against Scotland on board the ISS, after the BBC teamed up with ESA to beam it live to space.
