What's the baseball bat for? (seen in CRS-8 berthing NASA TV broadcast)

Question

Watching the CRS-8 Berthing live broadcast on NASA TV I noticed a baseball bat resting on top of a console in the front left part of the room, so I took some screenshots.

Looking closer, it seems to be about a meter or two away from a large, delicate-looking model of the International Space Station.

Is this part of NASA internal humor?

it's a version of the hard reset tool https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/6c/35/fa/6c35fa73e0b8db2d7213453a4d65e108.jpg — user16973, Apr 14 '16 at 01:24

score 57 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 10 '17 at 09:42

57

The baseball bat is for "Attitude adjustment", apparently :)

Source: Arstechnica photos of ISS control room

(ADCO=Attitude Determination and Control officer)

Here's a better pic of the bat from the Twitter:

edited Mar 10 '17 at 09:42

Community

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answered Apr 13 '16 at 12:16

Andy

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Mentioned here along with some better pics of the bat. Note the comment below (from Mark Passy) indicating that it's been at NASA for quite some time – Richard Apr 13 '16 at 14:19
Aha, I see! Legacy technology keeping the newer technology in line. The article is good, and thanks @Richard for the background too. – uhoh Apr 13 '16 at 15:11
Is there something else there for the five knuckle shuffle? ;) – Dean Apr 13 '16 at 15:45
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The tweet speaks for itself! The Ars Technica two page article is a good read as well. – uhoh Apr 13 '16 at 23:08
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In the article linked by @uhoh you can also see Mjölnir, here (middle right) – Apr 14 '16 at 12:24
...and a wooden mallet belonging to someone called "THOR"... (Thermal Operations and Resources) – Andy Apr 14 '16 at 12:26
Mjölnir is the name of Thor mallet ;) – Apr 14 '16 at 12:31
@JFL Andy is pulling your mallet - and also posted the link in the answer originally. – uhoh Apr 14 '16 at 12:48
Reminds me of the peanuts they keep stashed at JPL for mission-critical moments. – Phiteros Apr 15 '16 at 21:30

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 08 '19 at 11:49

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Besides being the "Attitude Control Device" in MCC-Houston, the bat belonged to one of out top ADCOs who is a big baseball fan.

answered Apr 08 '19 at 11:49

fonsi

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It's great to know that attitude control was done with a personal touch ;-) – uhoh Apr 08 '19 at 12:00

What's the baseball bat for? (seen in CRS-8 berthing NASA TV broadcast)

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