14 DAY TRIAL // NASA spokespeople announced on Friday that, in spite of the fact that he has played little golf during his life span, Russian astronaut Mikhail Tyurin is set for an adventuresome trip to outer space on Wednesday evening, which will begin by him knocking a lightweight 4.5 grams golf ball, instead of the standard 45 grams one, Reuters informs.
"I play ice hockey and my understanding is that it is very similar", Tyurin declared during an interview in which he gave numerous details about the stunt he was going to perform. "No question it's safe", he added, after a series of safety tests were performed in order to ensure the fact that the golf ball does not return to the space station and hit it, after being launched. Most of these tests were represented by the examination of several potential flight paths that the ball could assume.
According to the official statement, the golf ball will be launched from a Russian docking port, a stunt which is allegedly part of a wider campaign of the International Space Station to attract more financial contributions from various donors.
It was also announced that a club producer entitled Element 21 Golf Co. from Toronto, Canada, would pay the Russian space agency an important sum of money for Tyurin's space golf trip, which was preceded by several practice sessions within the space station. However, the exact amount of money was not revealed.
"Of course the crew is taking this very, very seriously so they've been doing a lot of practice", Holly Ridings, the NASA flight director was quoted by Reuters as declaring. "Our safety community has done a lot of work to understand and get ready for this task. There is absolutely no re-contact issue with the space station", she added, regarding the safety of the golf operation.