Koichi Wakata, a veteran astronaut with decades of human spaceflight experience, recently posted a delightful moment from the International Space Station (ISS) on social media, which has caught the attention of Elon Musk. In the video shared on X, Wakata is seen playing solo baseball aboard the space station. “It’s baseball season – the MLB season opener is kicking off in Japan. During Expedition 68 I played a solo game of baseball. In microgravity you don’t need a whole team, you can play all of the positions!” the Japanese Astronaut wrote while sharing the video.
The clip quickly caught the attention of several X users, including Elon Musk. Colonel Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian to command the International Space Station (ISS) and a global icon in space exploration, also reshared the video on the microblogging site with the caption, “That’s friend Koichi Wakata inside the JAXA module of the International Space Station – Japan plays great baseball!”
Take a look at the video below:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2025
Internet users were quick to react to the clip. While some appreciated the skills displayed by the astronaut, others simply called the video “cool”.
“seems fun! is there such a game that could be called spaceball? if humanity were to migrate to space at one point what kinda sports would ppl bring/create w (do we have a good amount of data to just begin to imagine idk) just a random thought,” wrote one user.
“Very impressive sir! Great reflexes!” commented another. “Baseball game just got funnier. Keep up Astro Koichi,” wrote a third user. “Do we ever really grow up? This makes me smile,” expressed another.
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Koichi Wakata became the first Japanese astronaut to command the International Space Station (ISS) in 2014. In 2022, he went to the ISS on his third long-duration mission, Crew-5, aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft Endurance. He became one of the few people to have flown aboard three different types of spacecraft: the space shuttle, Soyuz, and Dragon. He also made two spacewalks with American astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann.