Astronaut talks NASA into beaming the SEC Network to the International Space Station
There are college football fans, and then there are SEC fans.
Barry Wilmore is the latter — and he also happens to be an astronaut headed for a six-month stay aboard the International Space Station starting this fall. Right in the middle of football season. What's an avid Tennessee Tech fan to do?
The Navy captain, who has logged more than 259 hours in space since joining NASA in 2000, had NASA "arrange to provide the new SEC Network in the space station," reports The Tennessean. Wilmore will watch his beloved conference matchups on the internet.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"I don't watch a lot of sports — my wife might not agree with that — but I do like to watch football, the SEC Game of the Week," Wilmore explained. "I try to catch Tech every chance I get."
Wilmore, 51, walked on as a linebacker at Tennessee Tech, but he recorded a senior season with 143 total tackles — good for an induction into the university's sports hall of fame in 2003. So it's understandable that he might want to keep up with how his Golden Eagles are doing, even if he's stuck watching on a laptop as opposed to a big-screen TV.
The real news, of course, is that Tim Tebow's pre-game coverage could be headed for space. Godspeed, astronauts aboard the ISS.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Sarah Eberspacher is an associate editor at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked as a sports reporter at The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus and The Arizona Republic. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
-
Dark energy data suggest Einstein was right
Speed Read Albert Einstein's 1915 theory of general relativity has been proven correct, according to data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
New DNA tests of Pompeii dead upend popular stories
Speed Read An analysis of skeletal remains reveals that some Mount Vesuvius victims have been wrongly identified
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
NASA's Europa Clipper blasts off, seeking an ocean
Speed Read The ship is headed toward Jupiter on a yearslong journey
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Detailed map of fly's brain holds clues to human mind
Speed Read This remarkable fruit fly brain analysis will aid in future human brain research
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Blind people will listen to next week's total eclipse
Speed Read While they can't see the event, they can hear it with a device that translates the sky's brightness into music
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Melting polar ice is messing with global timekeeping
Speed Read Ice loss caused by climate change is slowing the Earth's rotation
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
An amphibian that produces milk?
speed read Caecilians, worm-like amphibians that live underground, produce a milk-like substance for their hatchlings
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Jupiter's Europa has less oxygen than hoped
speed read Scientists say this makes it less likely that Jupiter's moon harbors life
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published