Astronauts lose their hair over World Cup

Watch the video above: Astronauts get a head shave aboard the space station.

TORONTO – There’s a friendly World Cup rivalry going on about 400 km above our heads – and it didn’t end well for Americans.

For Thursday’s match between the United States and Germany, the two American astronauts aboard the International Space Station – Reid Wiseman and Steve Swanson – made a friendly wager with German astronaut Alexander Gerst: If the United States won, they got to draw an American flag on Gerst’s head. If Germany won, Gerst would shave their heads.

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The United States lost 1-0, though they did make it through to the next round.

After the game Gerst sent out this tweet:

You might wonder what the vacuum-like contraption is in the video. It is, in fact, a vacuum, so that pieces of hair don’t drift around the space station.