Russia plans to hit a golf ball into Earth orbit from the International Space Station. If NASA approves the plan, the ball would set records for the longest drive ever made. Boom! The plan is part of a commercial deal between the Russian space agency and Element 21 Golf Company, based in Toronto, Canada. In the plan, the station's next crew members, due to launch to the station on 29 March, will try for the record-breaking swing during one of three planned spacewalks by September 2006. A pimped-out gold-plated, six-iron golf club will be used to hit the ball, which is made out of the same scandium alloy used to build the station. After being hit from a special platform alongside the station, the ball is expected to orbit Earth for about four years, beaming its location to Earth-bound computers using global positioning transmitters. Eventually, the ball will lose altitude through atmospheric drag and burn up in the atmosphere. But that scenario depends on the ball being hit out of the station's orbital plane. If it somehow stayed in the same plane as the station, it might actually fall back onto the station or collide with it during a subsequent orbit. The damage caused by such a collision would depend on factors such as the impact angle, the speed of collision and the mass of the ball. [New Scientist]