Delays don’t keep cosmonaut from his golf game

WASHINGTON – Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin was late for his tee time in space Wednesday, but still managed to launch a super-lightweight golf ball into orbit – even if he shanked his shot.

Tyurin hit the golf ball 77 minutes behind schedule after delays to fix an overheating spacesuit and a stuck exterior hatch.

Using a gold-plated 6-iron and an American astronaut in the role of caddy and safety-holder, Tyurin hit the drive from a springlike tee outside the international space station, 220 miles over the northwest Pacific Ocean. The shot, which veered a little to the right, kicked off a planned six-hour spacewalk.

“I can see it as a little dot moving away from us,” Tyurin said.

But just how far did that baby go?

Like in any golf story, it depends on whom you talk to.

That drive went a billion miles – or will by the time it eventually comes down in a couple years – said Nataliya Hearn, the president of Element 21 Golf Company. The Toronto firm is paying the cash-starved Russian space agency an undisclosed amount for the golf stunt to promote its new golf club that includes a space-program-derived metal.

That’s a huge exaggeration, according to NASA’s lead spacewalk flight director, Holly Ridings. She said NASA’s calculations are that golf balls would only stay up two to three days, which would put the drive closer to a mere million miles.

Just how far the golf ball travels won’t be known until the ball burns up and enters Earth’s atmosphere. The ball weighs 3 grams, only about one-fifteenth the weight of a normal golf ball. It weighs less to minimize any damage should it actually strike something.

Like many golfers, Tyurin spent several minutes trying to get comfortable addressing the ball, but unlike his Earth-bound counterparts, at times he was upside down. He was tethered to the space station and had astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria holding on to him.

With Moscow Mission Control deliberating on how to position the ball on the tee, Tyurin, a veteran spacewalker but rookie golfer who was already more than an hour late, was cranky about the advice.

“The ball is the least of our concerns,” Tyurin said. “It’s me that is supposed to be positioned properly.”

NASA spacewalk commentator Rob Navias, who was not broadcasting in golf’s traditional hushed tones, noted that Tyurin’s shot sliced to the right. An agitated Tyurin opted not to take a planned second or third shot.

For a few tense minutes it looked like Tyurin might miss his tee time and spacewalk entirely when his spacesuit overheated and the bulky hatch door got stuck. Eventually, the suit started cooling, Tyurin got back in, and the tee time was a go.