Badminton Is Great on Earth, but a Match in Zero-G Is a Lot More Fun

The European Space Agency (ESA) recently released a clip showing astronaut Matthias Maurer challenging his crewmates, NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, and Kayla Barron, to an orbital badminton match.

And his team was not the only one who got involved in this fascinating match played in zero-G. Japanese spaceflight participants Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano, who joined the current Expedition 66 crew for a short-term stay on the space station, also took part in the exciting game.

It might seem like it’s hard to tell which way is up or down on the ISS. However, the video shows that the players use some metal bars to keep their feet anchored. This helps to stop them from floating around and stay in place as they hit the shuttlecock with their rackets. There’s also no net involved since it’s just a fun activity that’s meant to offer a demonstration of teamwork. This is not the first time the team onboard the ISS shares what fun looks like in zero-G.

Last year, French ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet shared a video of the space crew performing synchronized “swimming.” Pesquet returned from space along with the Crew-2 astronauts Aki Hoshide, Shane Kimbrough, and Megan McArthur in November after a six-month stay on the orbital laboratory.

Matthias arrived on the ISS as part of Crew-3 in the same month, meeting Pesquet for a brief period of time before the Crew-2 departed the station. He will spend just as much time in orbit as the previous crew did, conducting over 35 experiments that include areas ranging from human health to materials science. And from time to time, he’ll have his share of fun too, playing all sorts of games, but with a twist that makes them much more exciting.