The excitement of the 2024 Summer Olympics has extended to the International Space Station (ISS), where six NASA astronauts have organized their own mini-Olympics to celebrate the global games taking place in Paris and across France.
On July 26, NASA released a two-minute video showcasing the astronauts’ playful activities. The clip starts with a mock Olympic torch being passed among the crew, beginning with Jeanette Epps and concluding with Butch Wilmore in the Cupola, with Earth visible in the backdrop.
The astronauts gear up for their events, with Epps and Sunita Williams warming up, Wilmore stretching, and hydrating with floating water globules. The orbital games feature Barratt tossing a makeshift discus, Wilmore shotputting a ball of duct tape, Williams and Matthew Dominick performing gymnastics, and Epps sprinting through an ISS corridor. Caldwell Dyson shows off her strength by lifting a bar held by Wilmore and Barratt.
Despite the playful nature of the activities, the astronauts ended with a sincere message for the Olympians. Dominick, surrounded by his NASA colleagues, reflected on their enjoyment of the space-themed events and acknowledged the challenges faced by athletes competing under Earth’s gravity. “Over the past few days on the International Space Station, we’ve had an absolute blast pretending to be Olympic athletes,” Dominick said. “We, of course, have had the benefits of weightlessness. We can’t imagine how hard this must be, to be such a world-class athlete doing your sports under actual gravity. So from all of us aboard the International Space Station to every single athlete in the Olympic Games, godspeed!”
In addition to the six NASA astronauts, the ISS also hosts Russian cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenken, and Oleg Kononenko, the commander of Expedition 71. While most crew members are on a standard six-month mission, Williams and Wilmore arrived on Boeing’s new Starliner capsule on June 6 for a planned one-week stay. Their mission has been extended due to ongoing investigations into thruster issues and helium leaks on the spacecraft, with NASA and Boeing yet to confirm a departure date for Starline.