Ball in space reaches 45 million miles!
Astronaut's tee shot still going a six miles per second
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Manufacturers of the Scandium Alloy golf club used by Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin to strike a golf ball into space from the International Space Station on November 26 last year report that it has now travelled almost 50 million miles.
The Element 21 Golf Company (e21) reveal that originally, NASA predicted that the ball would burn up into the atmosphere within three days after Tyurin launched it but it is still the smallest orbiting purpose-built satellite to be tracked live from the Earth and can be viewed at
www.e21golf.com, along with a new line of e21 'Space Hardware' Scandium golf equipment.
Despite playing golf only twice in his life, Mikhail, hit the ball using both arms despite the restrictive bulk of his space suit, reporting at the time: "It went pretty far. It was an excellent shot."
So far the ball, says the club-maker, has travelled a total of 45,814,754 miles, with every additional second of flight adding another six miles of distance - equivalent to 67,000 miles a day.
