Commander Tyurin Plans To Tee Off On Space Walk

ISS Commander Mikhail Tyurin will engage in a little commercial activity during next Wednesday's scheduled six-hour space walk -- he's going to see how far he can hit a golf ball in space. US Astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria will look on while Tyurin has all the fun. Flight Engineer Thomas Reiter will monitor ISS systems from inside.

In a Friday press conference, Deputy ISS Program Manager Kirk Shireman said, "The ISS is in great shape. It's ready to support the assembly flight, it's certainly ready to support the EVA that we have coming up a week from now."

Tyurin is to hit one to three balls away from the station at the start of Wednesday's EVA. Besides promoting its new line of golfing equipment, the stunt's sponsor Canadian manufacturer Element 21 says it wants to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the last out-of-this-world golfing excursion -- Astronaut Alan Sheppard's much publicized golf shots on the moon.

Element 21 says Tyurin will use golf balls that are much lighter than standard weighing only one gram each -- that's about the same weight as a US dollar bill. Standard balls weigh around 45 grams.

No one is saying just how much Element 21 paid for the promotional activity, but it's a sure bet the Russian space agency ROSCOSMOS can use the money.

Of late the agency has sought private funding in a number of ways including training and launching a fortunate few into space as part of a crew. The last to do so was Anousheh Ansari of Ansari X-Prize fame. She went aloft aboard a Soyuz rocket and spent a few days with the crew on the ISS. Again, it's not certain exactly how much she paid for the privilege, but we're sure it costed more than the basic hit-a-golf-ball-from-orbit package!

Next week's heavenly golf shot was actually scheduled for an earlier EVA, but was postponed on safety concerns. Those safety concerns have been allayed by the new balls. Engineers say they have too little mass to cause any concern to the ISS or other orbiting vehicles.

Besides, says Shireman, "It's not like Tiger Woods taking a drive."

Aside from the golf tourney, NASA wants Tyurin and Lopez-Alegria to install hardware designed to measure charged and neutral particles in low-Earth orbit. It also hopes the pair can reposition a nav antenna designed to aid the automated docking of a future European cargo ship. Also on the agenda is an inspection of another antenna used to help dock Progress 23 last month. NASA wants to be sure it's fully retracted.

Oh, in case you were wondering... Engineers say those golf balls should deorbit in a couple of days on their own. We wonder if that estimate is dependant on how well Tyurin hits them.

FMI: www.nasa.gov, www.e21golf.com