Jeanette Epps sprints down a corridor in the International Space Station.
The orbital games have begun! As the 2024 Olympics kick off in Paris, the excitement extends far beyond Earth's atmosphere. Aboard the International Space Station (ISS), six NASA astronauts are getting in on the action, hosting their own mini-Olympics.
In a two-minute video released by NASA on July 26, the fun and games began with a ceremonial torch pass. Astronauts Sunita Williams, Jeanette Epps, Mike Barratt, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, and Butch Wilmore took turns passing a mock Olympic torch.
Sunita Williams, a seasoned astronaut, was seen shaking out her arms alongside Epps, preparing for the events ahead. The events that followed were a creative showcase of the astronauts' skills in microgravity. Wilmore stretched his upper body and hydrated by sucking in a floating water globule, trying to show the unique challenges of competing in space.
Mike Barratt started by hurling a makeshift discus, while Butch Wilmore shotputted a ball of duct tape. Sunita Williams and Matthew Dominick demonstrated their gymnastics skills and Jeanette Epps sprinted down an ISS corridor. Tracy Caldwell Dyson demonstrated impressive powerlifting, raising a bar held by Wilmore and Barratt off the "ground".
Then, on a serious note, the astronauts sent a message to the athletes of the Paris Olympics. Matthew Dominick, surrounded by his fellow NASA astronauts, said, "Over the past few days on the International Space Station, we've had an absolute blast pretending to be Olympic athletes."
He added that they had the "benefits of weightlessness" and said "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!" the space team wished.
These six astronauts weren't alone on the ISS; Russian cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenken and Oleg Kononenko joined them, commanding the Expedition 71 mission.
The majority of the ISS' crew members are on a standard six-month mission, but two of them, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, have experienced an unexpected extension of their stay. Initially arriving on June 6 via Boeing's innovative Starliner capsule for a planned one-week visit, their departure has been delayed due to ongoing investigations into thruster malfunctions and helium leaks on the spacecraft. As a result, their departure date is uncertain, pending investigations by NASA and Boeing.