Even Astronauts are Getting into the World Cup

As the world stops to watch the World Cup, which kicked off a long haul of criminally early mornings today, it seems even those hundreds of miles beyond the Earth will be tuning in. NASA has released a video of astronauts based at the International Space Station bidding all World Cup competitors good luck, promising they will be watching the matches from space and throwing down some mad football skills.

American astronauts Reid Wiseman, Steve Swanson and German astronaut Alexander Gerst filmed a short message for "all the teams and fans on the ground in Brazil." On tape, Gerst implores everyone participating in or attending the World Cup to have "peaceful games". All this, while laptops and their microphone float in zero gravity. After Wiseman wraps up the speech with, "Have fun, play hard, and we'll be watching on the International Space Station," Swanson executes a slow-motion flip and kicks a hovering ball midair. No biggie.

What follows is perhaps the most spectacular video sequence ever taped in celebration of a World Cup: the three astronauts are shown playing soccer in their gravity-defying lodgings. They kick, dive and float in mid-air. The footage inspires the starry-eyed possibility of a what a World Cup in space could look like.

Though the three astronauts — posted to work on Expedition 40 together — won't have the opportunity to watch the games live, NASA has promised to upload the matches for their viewing as soon as they are broadcast. Let's just hope there are no spoilers in space.

Check out the video below:

Via Fast Company and BBC.