Game, set…float! In order to keep their muscles and bones healthy and active, astronauts must exercise for two hours every day. What better routine than having the first ever tennis match in space?

On Tuesday, Aug. 23, four astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) played a doubles tennis match in a zero gravity environment. NASA astronaut and space station commander Drew Feustel partnered with NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold, playing against NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst. The match was organized by the U.S. Open tennis organization to inspire young tennis players to become interested in astronomy.

So, how does tennis work in space? Feustel compared the match to the classic arcade game Pong. Without gravity, the foam tennis balls move in a straight line until they come into contact with something instead of bouncing down onto a table. The astronauts also had to deal with themselves floating around the ISS! Using tiny racquets along with the foam balls to ensure that no harm would come to any equipment on the space station, the players had to orient themselves while floating in a microgravity environment to try and hit the ball in the right direction. There were a few rule changes to make the game easier to play with these limitations, including being able to play the ball after it hit the roof!

Feustel and Arnold won the match, potentially because Feustel got a few pre-game tips from a professional tennis player, Juan M. del Potro. Smart thinking, commander! What sport do you think should be played next in space?

Interested in more space news stories like this one? Join us in our all-live planetarium show, "Wonders of the Night Sky," playing every day in the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium, the biggest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere. Our LSC Space News Now portion is always set aside for the latest topics in space news.