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European Space Agency to host flying disc
competition in space
On Friday, December 15th, the European Space Agency is the host
of a
unique sporting event. Supported by the World Flying Disc
Federation,
the Swedish Frisbee Sport Federation are proud to sanction this
unprecedented event. Christer Fuglesang, ESA astronaut on the
Space
Shuttle Discovery Mission STS-116, will attempt to break the
world
record in the flying disc sporting discipline MTA, Maximum Time
Aloft.
The competition will start at seven minutes past seven GMT in
the
evening of Friday, December 15th, 2006. We believe that this is
the
first ever sanctioned sports event that takes place in space.
The rules of MTA are simple: A player shall attempt to throw the
disc
in such a fashion that the disc remains airborne for as long as
possible, before catching the disc himself. The timing of the
flight
of the throw shall be measured from the instant of release until
the
instant the disc is initially touched in the catching attempt.
In this specific competition, Christer is free to waive the
recommendation in the rules that an additional disc be available
in
the event a disc is lost or becomes unsuitable for use.
The MTA world record stands at an impressive 16.72 seconds and
was
set by Don Cain (USA), on 5/26/84, in Philadelphia, PA. The
sanction
for the attempt to break it was formally announced by the
Swedish
Frisbee Sport Federation on December 10th, 2006.
Competition supervisors are Helen Page, European Space Agency,
and
Jonas Bengtsson, Södertörns Frisbee Klubb, Sweden.
Astronauts on the shuttle:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts116/
index.html
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