'Let's Go Mets!' Astronaut Mike Massimino Roots for His Home Team

By Tariq Malik
published

Former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino cheers on the Mets for Game 1 of the 2015 World Series at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City, where a Mets home plate that he took into space is on display.
Former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino cheers on the Mets for Game 1 of the 2015 World Series at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City, where a Mets home plate that he took into space is on display. (Image credit: Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum)

NEW YORK — Attention, sports fans! Game 1 of the 2015 World Series between the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals launches tonight (Oct. 27), and not even astronauts are immune to baseball fever. Case in point: Former NASA astronaut (and proud New Yorker) Mike Massimino, who recorded an awesome video to root, root, root for his home team. 

"The Mets are about to begin the World Series and I want to wish them the best of luck," Massimino says in the 21-second video. "Let's go Mets! Let's go Mets! Let's go Mets!" You can watch Massimino cheer the Mets on here: 

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Massimino loves the Mets so much that he took Shea Stadium's home plate into space in 2009 during his last space shuttle mission. (That space-flown home plate is on display at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum here in Manhattan.) Massimino is the senior advisor for space programs at the Intrepid. A native of Franklin Square, New York, he flew on two space shuttle missions — both of them to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope — during his NASA career, and left the space agency last year to take a position at Columbia University. 

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Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.