Astronaut Scott Kelly flying on the International Space Station got an exclusive view of the Super Bowl last night.
You probably heard some mention of the Super Bowl last night, the 50th game in a long-standing tradition here in the United States. While football fans tuned in around the country, one of the hippest Super Bowl parties was happening – and it was traveling roughly 17,500 miles per hour.
According to a Tech Times report, Astronaut Scott Kelly, serving on the International Space Station, snapped some amazing shots of the Super Bowl gathering at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA as he soared above the surface of the Earth.
Kelly’s window of opportunity didn’t last long, however. As the space station sped by the Santa Clara stadium at a mind-boggling speed of 17,500 mph, Kelly snapped this shot of the Big Game. That wasn’t Kelly’s only interaction with the Super Bowl – the astronaut had a TV set up on the space station that allowed him to catch every second of the game.
He tweeted a picture of his humble setup aboard the ISS, writing “Hosted #SuperBowl party on @space_station, but no one showed up. I would have served nachos! #YearInSpace.”
Kelly is currently serving a yearlong term aboard the ISS, and is the current record-holder for the longest time spent in space by an American astronaut. The retired U.S. Navy Captain is an avid social media user, keeping followers updated about the latest from space via Twitter and Facebook.
The ISS has been orbiting the planet since 1998, and is currently the largest satellite in orbit. It can be seen from the surface of Earth without a telescope, and soars at an altitude ranging from 205 to 270 miles. The station completes 15.54 orbits each day, so even if Kelly missed his first opportunity at snapping the Super Bowl from space, he could have grabbed the shot on his second flyover.
The Denver Broncos emerged victorious last night, beating the South Carolina Panthers 24 to 10 for their third Super Bowl title.
Daniel J. Brown
Daniel J. Brown (Editor-in-Chief) is a recently retired data analyst who gets a kick out of reading and writing the news. He enjoys good music, great food, and sports, with a slant towards Southern college football, basketball and professional baseball.