The longest golf drive in history has been postponed.A planned attempt by Pavel Vinogradov, the Russian commander of the International Space Station, to hit a special golf ball into orbit during an American-controlled spacewalk has been put off because of concerns that the space station might be endangered.
Given NASA's bad luck, the concern seems well placed. What if Vinogradov has a bad slice and the space station got dinged?The Element 21 Golf Company in Toronto had paid Russia an unspecified amount for its Golf Shot in Space project, in which a special radio-transmitting ball would be smacked into a three-year orbit of Earth. The company said the promotion was to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Alan B. Shepard Jr.'s famous golf shot on the Moon on the Apollo 14 mission.
An American safety review of the proposed shot will be undertaken and the venture will probably go ahead, perhaps on a Russian-controlled spacewalk scheduled this fall.
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