Barcelona Visits NASA

Barcelona is the first team to enter the NASA (National Aeronautic and Space Agency) facilities. After playing their first friendly in the US Tour - a 1-1 draw against Chivas Guadalajara - Frank Rijkaard's players decided to take some time off and visit the NASA facilities.

After switching from California to Houston, the Dutchman took three of Barcelona's most important and representative players and visited the Agency headquarters. Ronaldinho, Xavi and Puyol joined Rijkaard in their first space adventure.

Of course, none of them actually entered a space ship. But they were very close to doing so, by holding a 10 minutes conversation with the crew on the International Space Ship (ISS), gravitating more than 240.000 miles above the earth.

Russian Pavel Vinogradov - flight engineer - American Jeffrey Williams and German Thomas Reiter all tried to show the Catalan players that football dribbling & skills are possible in space too. After some pretty funny representations, the three astronauts wished Barcelona all the best luck before their next friendly, against FC America.

On the other hand, the Catalan players & trainer gifted their three conversation partners with Barcelona tie-shirts, having their names on the back. More, Ronaldinho launched them an invitation to Barcelona as soon as they get back on earth.

Frank Rijkaard's side has caused a mass craziness inside the US. While playing their first friendly in Los Angeles, more than 90.000 fans attended the match, while tens of thousands were happy with watching live their practice sessions.