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last mo.

NASA Says It Will Send Soccer Ball to Moon If U.S. Wins 2026 World Cup

Agency leaders framed the pledge as a public motivational gesture tied to plans for a future U.S. lunar base.

Astronaut Alexander Gerst mit Fußball auf der ISS
Image
Die US-Raumfahrtagentur Nasa will im Falle eines WM-Siegs der USA einen Fußball zum Mond schicken. Dies versprach Nasa-Chef Jared Isaacman als "kleinen Motivationsschub" für das US-Team.

Overview

  • At a public briefing on plans for a U.S. lunar base, NASA chief Jared Isaacman pledged that the agency will send a soccer ball to the Moon if the U.S. wins the 2026 World Cup.
  • Lunar-base program manager Carlos Garcia-Galan said the ball would be carried as part of a future payload but described that plan as conditional on mission approvals and manifest decisions.
  • NASA has already flown a FIFA World Cup ball to the International Space Station as part of its tournament outreach.
  • Isaacman invoked astronaut Alan Shepard’s 1971 Moon golf shots and cited German astronaut Alexander Gerst’s 2018 ISS soccer ball to place the promise in a spaceflight tradition of symbolic items.
  • The pledge is primarily a publicity and motivational gesture and its follow-through will depend on formal mission planning, payload limits, and agency approvals before any ball could actually be included on a lunar mission.