CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — It was a typical agenda for a spacewalk. Attach a space station antenna and install a proton detector to monitor solar eruptions. But first, some golf.

In a promotion for a Canadian manufacturer of golf clubs, a Russian astronaut on Wednesday used a six-iron to drive a golf ball off the International Space Station. The astronaut, Mikhail Tyurin, had to make the shot one handed, with a foot jammed into a ladder to keep him steady.

The station commander, Captain Michael Lopez-Alegria of the U.S. Navy, was the caddie, placing the ball on a special tee and standing by in case his colleague slipped.


NASA gave its approval for the golf shot after it was satisfied that the fragile solar panels on the station would not be in danger or that the ball would not settle into the dangerous flotilla of space junk along the flight path of the station.

"This isn't the type of experiment that would be typically designed and conducted for the U.S. program," said Kirk Shireman, deputy manager of the NASA space station office.

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"But if it's done by the Russians for their purposes and does serve the purpose of captivating students, I'm glad to do it, as long as it's a safe thing to execute," Shireman added.

The ball sailed into orbit behind the space station.

In a few days, it should succumb to Earth's gravity and burn up in the upper atmosphere, Shireman said.

At least one other golf ball is out there. On the Apollo 14 mission in 1971, Alan Shepard used a makeshift club for a long drive that landed on the Moon.

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