The International Space Station will fly over Super Bowl 2021 stadium for the big game

JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi captured this photo of Tampa, Florida, from the International Space Station. (Image credit: Soichi Noguchi/NASA/Twitter)

Astronauts on the International Space Station just might have the ultimate nosebleed seats for the Super Bowl.

When the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers face off in Super Bowl LV today (Feb. 7) in Tampa Bay, Florida, the space station — currently home to seven space travelers — will soar over the Raymond James Stadium stadium hosting the epic football game. If the weather is clear, station astronauts could try to spot the stadium from space. In fact, one astronaut already has spotted the game's host city from orbit.

"Tampa, Florida, host city of Super Bowl LV," wrote astronaut Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on Friday (Feb. 5) as he shared the photo on Twitter.

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The space station will fly over the Super Bowl at 7:15 p.m. EST (0015 Feb. 8 GMT), about 45 minutes after kickoff as the football game is in full swing, NASA officials said.

"Weather permitting, the sighting opportunity will be about the same time two NFL football teams will be competing to win the game at Raymond James Stadium," the space agency wrote in an update.

The space station flyover isn't the only space connection to Super Bowl LV.

The game's first quarter will include a commercial for a private spaceflight called Inspiration4 led by billionaire Jared Isaacman, founder of Shift4 Payments. The 30-second ad will invite the public to enter two contests to win a seat on the mission, which will launch on a SpaceX rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft later this year.

Isaacman has bought out the SpaceX flight, which is expected to fly four people in orbit on a Crew Dragon for two to four days, and is giving away the three other seats. One will go to a cancer survivor and healthcare worker from St. Jude's Children Research Hospital. Another seat will go to the winner of an entrepreneur contest run by Shift4Shop, while the final seat is reserved for the winner of a random drawing of people who donate to St. Jude's via the Inspiration4 website.

The space station's current Expedition 64 crew includes four NASA astronauts, two Russian cosmonauts and Noguchi, who represents Japan. The astronauts live and work on Greenwich Mean Time, so Super Bowl LV will be occurring late at night in their schedule. (The station's flyover is shortly after midnight station time.)

It's unclear if some of the crew plan to stay up late to watch the Chiefs and Buccaneers battle it out in Tampa Bay, but it's likely NASA will have the results available to relay up to the astronauts if the crew asks on Monday morning.

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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.