Official Game Ball of 2018 FIFA World Cup to Travel to Int'l Space Station

BAIKONUR (Kazakhstan) (Sputnik) - The official game ball of 2018 FIFA World Cup will be traveling to the International Space Station on Wednesday, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev said Tuesday.
Sputnik

"We are taking with us the ball that, I think, will be on the field in the very first game," Artemyev said at the pre-flight press conference.

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According to the astronaut, his colleague Anton Shkaplerov, a member of Expedition 54/55, will return the football to Earth.

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Artemyev, at the request of his son, will also bring a stuffed toy with him, the wolf called Zabivaka ("someone who scores a lot of goals" in Russian), which was chosen as the World Cup mascot.

Russia is hosting the tournament, which is set to kick off in June.

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