Golf in Space

deeptrace writes "Tentatively scheduled for a spacewalk this summer, a Russian cosmonaut will take his trusty six iron and a special weightless-friendly tee and put a golf ball into orbit from outside the International Space Station. The golf ball has an embedded transmitter so that it can be tracked as it orbits. It is expected to orbit for 3 to 4 years before burning up on re-entry. The golf shot is the result of promotional fees paid to the Russian space agency by a Canadian golf club manufacturer."

Comments

Re:Yardage?

[HaydnH]

"So I wonder how many yards it will travel in 3 or 4 years before it burns up? This is going to be the longest drive ever."

From TFA:

"The ball is expected to travel up to 2.1 billion miles before it drops back into the atmosphere and burns up."

<sarcasm>I know it's a really hard conversion, especially for the techie crowd on /.</sarcasm> - that's 3696 billion yards.