NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Shane Kimbrough from the International Space Station joined reporters on a Q&A interview with social media fans in a televised event on Wednesday.
The interview took place in NASA Space Center Houston, where the Super Bowl LI edition is scheduled to take place this Sunday, February 5th starting at 6:30 EST. This year’s Super Bowl features the Atlanta Falcons versus the New England Patriots in a battle for the Vince Lombardi trophy.
The astronauts recounted their life in space and even picked their winner for the game while sporting the appropriate gear: jerseys and football in hand, as reported by Space.com.
Shane Kimbrough, the commander of Expedition 50, wore his hometown Atlanta team’s shirt while making a prediction of 30 to 24 for the Falcons.
The crew will be watching the Super Bowl from the space station and has already picked out a special menu to eat during the game, which falls during nighttime for astronauts who operate under Greenwich Mean Time. The crew will enjoy live coverage of the NFL championship game.
In the video posted by NASA, astronauts tossed the football in what may be the longest recorded Hail Mary pass. It is thought the pigskin- a common nickname for the football- traveled over 320 miles in total since the ISS is stuck in orbit moving at 17,500 miles per hour around Earth.
Astronauts also spoke about the importance of exercise in embellishing with Super Bowl references, as well as how working on a space station has similar aspects of teamwork to being on a sports team.
“It’s important in small groups, like the group that we have up here, but more importantly it’s a fantastic relationship that we have with ground teams all over the world. That teamwork is very, very special to us,” said Whitman in the video.
Source: Space