From 'Tetris' to 'StarCraft 2' — 5 times astronauts took video games into space

Video games have come a long way since their inception, but you’ll find the furthest they’ve gone (so far) is the depths of space itself. No, we're not talking about video games set in space ; these actually went into space. From individual missions to tours aboard the ISS, video games have featured surprisingly often in the inky blackness of space. Astronauts are pretty busy when they're on a mission — it's quite expensive to get them into orbit, and the taxpayers don't want to spend millions of dollars so Victor Glover can play Halo in orbit — but they do occasionally get to take games into space. So strap in and prepare to blast off as we look at our brief history of sending video games to space. 1993 — Tetris becomes the 1st game In space (that we know of) (Image credit: Bonhams) In the early 90s, the newly born Russian Federation was still managing the world’s first modular space station, Mir. One of the brave cosmonauts tasked with a 196-day mission aboard the world’s pre-eminent space station was Aleksander Serebrov . When Serebrov wasn’t busy setting the world record for the number of space walks (a record later surpassed by Anatoly Solovyev), he found time to enjoy his Game Boy with a copy of the seminal Russian puzzle game, Tetris. Not only does this make Serebrov the first person to play video games in space , but it also marks a spectacular piece of technological patriotism. …