The official match ball of the FIFA World Cup 2026, manufactured in Sialkot, Pakistan, has made it to space before the tournament is even halfway done.
NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station conducted an experiment with the Adidas Trionda ball inside the station’s Cupola module, observing how a modern football behaves when gravity and friction are removed entirely.
“The official FIFA World Cup ball went to space,” NASA said, explaining that sports engineers carefully fine-tune a ball’s balance to ensure it behaves consistently during matches.
The crew released the ball inside the station and watched it drift and rotate unpredictably, its movement governed entirely by inertia and minor air currents within the station.
NASA said that the experiment, a recreation of a study first carried out in 2019, demonstrated how differences in a ball’s balance and centre of mass affect the way it moves.
“Helping to improve the beautiful game is just one of the ways NASA science done on the International Space Station makes life better for people on Earth,” the space agency said.
The Trionda is manufactured by Forward Sports, a Sialkot-based company that also produced the official match balls for the 2014, 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Sialkot supplies more than two-thirds of the world’s footballs and has been the home of FIFA World Cup ball production for decades.
Adidas designed the ball, with its name combining the prefix “tri” and the Spanish word “onda,” meaning wave, to represent the three host nations of the 2026 tournament: the United States, Canada and Mexico. Its colour scheme uses red for Canada, green for Mexico and blue for the United States (US), with a maple leaf, an eagle and a star as national symbols on the ball’s surface.
The Trionda also contains a 500Hz motion sensor that sends real-time ball movement data to the Video Assistant Referee system, helping officials with offside calls and other key decisions. Deep seams across the four-panel construction provide stability in flight, while textured details improve grip in wet conditions.
