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Watching the CRS-8 Berthing live broadcast on NASA TV I noticed a baseball bat resting on top of a console in the front left part of the room, so I took some screenshots.

Looking closer, it seems to be about a meter or two away from a large, delicate-looking model of the International Space Station.

Is this part of NASA internal humor?

NASA CRS-8 berthing baseball bat larger

NASA CRS-8 berthing baseball bat full screen

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2 Answers 2

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The baseball bat is for "Attitude adjustment", apparently :)

Source: Arstechnica photos of ISS control room

(ADCO=Attitude Determination and Control officer)

Here's a better pic of the bat from the Twitter: enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ Mentioned here along with some better pics of the bat. Note the comment below (from Mark Passy) indicating that it's been at NASA for quite some time $\endgroup$
    – Richard
    Apr 13, 2016 at 14:19
  • $\begingroup$ Aha, I see! Legacy technology keeping the newer technology in line. The article is good, and thanks @Richard for the background too. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Apr 13, 2016 at 15:11
  • $\begingroup$ Is there something else there for the five knuckle shuffle? ;) $\endgroup$
    – Dean
    Apr 13, 2016 at 15:45
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    $\begingroup$ The tweet speaks for itself! The Ars Technica two page article is a good read as well. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Apr 13, 2016 at 23:08
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    $\begingroup$ In the article linked by @uhoh you can also see Mjölnir, here (middle right) $\endgroup$
    – user14109
    Apr 14, 2016 at 12:24
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Besides being the "Attitude Control Device" in MCC-Houston, the bat belonged to one of out top ADCOs who is a big baseball fan.

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  • $\begingroup$ It's great to know that attitude control was done with a personal touch ;-) $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Apr 8, 2019 at 12:00

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