Astronaut Tweets Space Shot of Soldier Field Before Game on Sunday


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Astronaut Scott Kelly has been in space since March on a year-long mission, gathering data aboard the International Space Station for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). Yesterday, he decided to get involved in the first Sunday of football season, like many Americans were doing back home. Instead of watching from the couch, however, Kelly snapped a picture of Soldier Field from his cosmic perspective, according to local news affiliate WGNtv.com.

“My new hobby! Get a #SundayNFLStadiumPicFromSpace,” Kelly tweeted with the accompanying photo of the Chicago Bears’ home. “First up- #SoldierField, #Chicago #NFLGameDay #NFL #YearInSpace.”

By the sounds of it, Kelly plans to continue this visual adventure throughout the year. While it didn’t give any luck to the home team Bears, who lost to the rival Green Bay Packers 31-23, it did provide a fascinating look at the Chicago skyline along with the beautiful blue backdrop of Lake Michigan. It also was a subtle reminder that although sports reign supreme in many aspects of American culture, there are vastly more important things going on every moment of every day.

Soldier Field is the oldest stadium in the National Football League (NFL), opening in 1924. The 61,500 capacity stadium is currently the third smallest in the NFL, well below the 70,000 person average for football stadiums.

Still, with renovations that were made in 2003, it has ranked as one of the top 10 football stadiums by many publications recently. Sports website 247sports.com placed it fourth on their list.

They argued, “it’s got the old-school feel of a smash-mouth football game, and the new-school, updated amenities to keep fans coming back.”

And now it’s got a very new-school, profile-picture worthy photograph to go with it.

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