In today's world there's only so many firsts that humanity can accomplish, especially in the realm of space exploration and interaction. We've already crossed some serious achievements off of that list, so at this point it's a good time to have some fun! Such was this case on Wednesday night when the first ever tennis game played in space was livestreamed for the world!
The competitors in the match were Commander Drew Feustel, NASA astronauts Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Ricky Arnold, and the European Space Agency's Alexander Gerst. Each of them had to use miniature tennis rackets and tennis balls to avoid accidentally inflicting damage to the station.
As expected, the game was extremely slow despite its special circumstances. We may be accomplishing new things, but it seems we're still a few generations away from the artificial gravity of our favorite fictional spacecrafts. As reported by the New York Post, when the tennis balls were struck they'd just lazily move along in a straight line. So maybe it wasn't as epic as it sounded.
Below is CBS New York's video on the story: