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Space Shuttle Atlantis Will Carry Basketballs Into Space

Posted by samzenpus on from the meaningless-publicity-stunt dept.

Having figured out everything there is to know about space, and being huge fans of Space Jam, NASA has left some of their sciencey stuff behind and made room for a pair of basketballs on the Space Shuttle Atlantis. One of the balls comes courtesy of The Harlem Globetrotters, and the other is on loan from the University of Chicago. It was used by Edwin Hubble in a 1909 victory against Indiana University. "It is only fitting that the team that has seen more of the world than any other in history would have a presence beyond the stratosphere," Globetrotters chief executive officer Kurt Schneider said in a news release.

38 comments

  1. Astronomer by googlesmith123 · · Score: 1

    Astronomer: "If I'm not mistaken that up there looks like a flying....." just about to say before he was hit by a flying basketball.

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  2. Space jam? What about by i.r.id10t · · Score: 2, Funny

    What about Space Balls?

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    1. Re:Space jam? What about by hezekiah957 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Don't know about you, but my Schwartz wouldn't come anywhere near fitting in one of those shuttles.

  3. Seems wrong to me by EdIII · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Because the old ball did not have an air valve, Grunsfeld cut it open and discovered it was filled with fiber packing material. The stuffing was removed so the ball would take up as little room as possible aboard space shuttle Atlantis.

    That just seems wrong to me. They actually damaged something nearly 100 years old just to make it smaller. It could just be me, but they should have just taken it into space the way it was without damaging it. Seems shameful to me.

    1. Re:Seems wrong to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Even if it wasn't a relic like that, what's the point in taking deflated basketballs in to orbit? What does it accomplish/test/prove?

    2. Re:Seems wrong to me by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      It is really just an object. Besides its historical value will increase of it being the first basketball in space. Just because it is a hundred years old it doesn't mean it is of a real value. If that was the case I would be in panic when I drilled a hole in my house to put in some wiring.

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    3. Re:Seems wrong to me by Minwee · · Score: 2, Informative

      I think that Gus Grissom would have had an answer for that question.

    4. Re:Seems wrong to me by mister_playboy · · Score: 1

      Sure, but couldn't they have cut a bit of mass/space out in some other way? The fact they are doing this in the first place implies they have some capacity to spare... why not chop up something else?

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    5. Re:Seems wrong to me by camperdave · · Score: 1

      Seems wrong to me too! It's not like a deflated ball is going to take up much less room than an inflated one in the first place, and in the second place, this ball was an antique. It was stuffed, and they destroyed it to get it on board. So now you've got the ball AND the stuffing. (Now, they didn't say, but perhaps the ball was sewn together, and all they did was cut the stitching. Nevertheless, it tarnishes the whole point of bringing a basketball to begin with.)

      What they should have done is stuck them in a mesh bag and strapped them to the back of a seat, or stowed them in the shower area, or a bunk, or something. Or, if they are THAT strapped for room on the shuttle, they should have just left them behind.

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    6. Re:Seems wrong to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe it is because of the air pressure aboard the shuttle been less than 1 atmosphere? You don't want a 100 year old basketball exploding on you! :)

    7. Re:Seems wrong to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't destroy basketball! Basketball is a peaceful planet!

    8. Re:Seems wrong to me by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Don't know if this applies for a ball stuffed with something other than air, but my sister-in-law was forced to deflate her basketball when she went to Ireland for college. Something about the prop plane she was taking from Heathrow to Dublin not having a pressurized cabin, and they were afraid it would explode.

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    9. Re:Seems wrong to me by swillden · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That just seems wrong to me. They actually damaged something nearly 100 years old just to make it smaller. It could just be me, but they should have just taken it into space the way it was without damaging it. Seems shameful to me.

      There are lots of old basketballs around. The thing that was special about this one was that Edwin Hubble had used it..

      Do you think Hubble would have minded that "his" ball had to be deflated in order for it to go into space? This was a man who spent his life studying the Universe, but who died before mankind had even managed to put an object in orbit.

      I think he'd consider it amazingly cool that the ball he played with went into space along with astronauts doing repair work on the space-based telescope named after him.

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    10. Re:Seems wrong to me by camperdave · · Score: 1

      Don't know if this applies for a ball stuffed with something other than air, but my sister-in-law was forced to deflate her basketball when she went to Ireland for college. Something about the prop plane she was taking from Heathrow to Dublin not having a pressurized cabin, and they were afraid it would explode.

      Well, possibly, except the shuttle has a pressurized cabin. It kind of has to have one. Even so, why cut the ball up. Surely installing a discrete hole would be sufficient. Besides, The Fancy Article talked about having room for the ball, not about decompression.

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      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    11. Re:Seems wrong to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's because you have a NIGGER for a 'president', that's why they're doing this.

      It's to make space travel appeal to the useless, feckless NIGGERS that are currently DESTROYING your country - or hadn't you noticed?

      If the USA was ALL BLACK, would it have a space program? How about ANYTHING of value at all? Of course not - it would be exactly like every other failed country in Africa.

  4. Press Release by bamboo7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Farnsworth: While you were gone, the Globetrotters held a press conference informing everyone that I was a 'jive sucka.'

    1. Re:Press Release by Darth_brooks · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hermes: I'm just glad my fat, ugly mother isn't around to see this.

      Farnsworth: Leave your promiscuous mother out of this!

      --
      There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
    2. Re:Press Release by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Professor Farnsworth's line is actually "Enough about your promiscuous mother, Hermes."

  5. In space... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Even white men can jump.

  6. I see by pak9rabid · · Score: 4, Funny

    So this is how the Gobetrotters get their own planet. I guess NASA was impressed with their show-boating Globetrotter algebra enough to lend them a space shuttle.

  7. What's the point again? by srussia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. Deflate Globetrotters ball

    2. Cut open century-old ball

    3. Send up to space and bring back.

    4. ...

    5. What exactly?

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    1. Re:What's the point again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What the heck is ... ???

  8. Been there, done that... by G3ckoG33k · · Score: 4, Informative

    Been there, done almost that...

    No me, but:

    Today, the European Space Agency hosted a unique sporting event. Supported by the World Flying Disc Federation and sanctioned by the Swedish Frisbee Sport Federation, STS-116 mission specialist Christer Fuglesang broke the world record in the flying disc sporting discipline MTA, Maximum Time Aloft.

    ESA believes that this is the first ever sanctioned sports event that has taken place in space.

    The rules of MTA are simple: A player shall attempt to throw the disc in such a fashion that the disc remains airborne for as long as possible, before catching the disc himself. The timing of the flight of the throw shall be measured from the instant is initially touched in the catching attempt.

    In this specific competition, Christer was free to waive the recommendation in the rules that an additional disc be available in the event a disc was lost or becomes unsuitable for use.

    Fuglesang's record-setting attempt at MTA had an air time between his toss and catching the disc of 20 seconds.

    Until today, the MTA world record stood at 16.72 seconds and was set by Don Cain on May 26, 1984, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The sanction for the attempt to break it was formally announced by the Swedish Frisbee Sport Federation on December 10, 2006.

    (from: http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum30/HTML/000476.html)

    1. Re:Been there, done that... by crossmr · · Score: 1

      Couldn't he have tossed it, had a nap and then caught it?

  9. Send Bill Cosby up! by Megane · · Score: 2, Funny

    After all, he is an official honorary Harlem Globetrotter!

    And didn't they invent Jello Pudding for NASA or something? It's so high-tech, they must have.

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  10. He's spining the ball on his finger! Just take it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bah, it's all rigged you know. They used a ladder.

  11. Planet Basketball by Ichijo · · Score: 2, Informative

    I haven't heard of a basketball in space since Hardware Wars!

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    1. Re:Planet Basketball by Radical+Moderate · · Score: 1

      Heh heh. "Basketball is a peaceful planet!"

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  12. Two basketballs? by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 1

    So, is Salma Hayek the first Mexican American astronaut?

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  13. Dumb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just dumb.

  14. Have none of you pathetic earthlings game??? by phillymjs · · Score: 1

    Sweet Clyde, laugh derisively at them!

    ~Philly

  15. Sounds like an old McDonalds ad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Off the ISS, off the moon, nothing but net. now gimme my Big Mac.

  16. Wunnerful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pretty much shows you how NASA is spending their time and our money these days.

  17. Stargate Basketball.. by bigdrf · · Score: 0

    So Atlantis finally brings basketball to the Pegasus galaxy. The globetrotters will finally be able to humiliate the wraith once and for all!!!

  18. The real reason... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He just wanted to say "My pair of balls is bigger than yours" in space!

  19. Re:Cost? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How much does it cost us taxpayers to send two
    basketballs into orbit (extra lift expenses + salaried time for NASA personnel to handle the balls)?

    Are the globe trotters and the University of Indiana paying for all this publicity or is this just one more example of a bailout?

    Perhaps this is the wave of the future for space travel and exploration, sponsor-PAID advertisement. I say nothing on these missions but peer reviewed science, unless those hoping for advertisement pay the freight.

  20. Oblig. by seandiggity · · Score: 2, Funny

    Johnson: Colonel, you better take a look at this radar.
    Colonel: What is it, son?
    Johnson: I don't know, sir, but it looks like a giant--
    Jet Pilot: Dick!
    Dick: Yeah?
    Jet Pilot: Take a look outta starboard.
    Dick: Oh, my God! it looks like a huge--
    Bird-Watching Woman: Pecker!
    Bird-Watching Man: [raising binoculars] Oh, where?
    Bird-Watching Woman: Wait! that's not a woodpecker, it looks like someone's--
    Army Sergeant: Privates! We have reports of an unidentified flying object! It is a long, smooth shaft, complete with--
    Baseball Umpire: 2 balls!

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