Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will watch the Euro 2012 football championship and London Olympics while in space, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday.
“We will cheer for the Russian national team,” said cosmonaut Gennady Padalka in pre—flight comments to reporters at the Kazakhstan’s Baikonour space centre.
“Of course it won’t be live, but we’ll be sent recordings of the best matches,” Padalka said, in comments reported by the Interfax news agency.
Russia faces the Czech Republic, Greece and co—host Poland at the Euro 2012 championships in June.
Audio—video material from the London Olympics, which take place between July 27 and August 12, will be delivered to the ISS aboard later supply flights, Paladka said.
“We might even have a little marathon competition of our own on the space station’s running treadmill,” he joked.
Padalka is scheduled along with Russian cosmonaut Sergei Revin and American astronaut Joseph Acaba to fly to the ISS on May 15 from Baikonour.
(The headline was corrected for an error)
