World Cup soccer mania has launched off planet Earth and reached astronauts living on the International Space Station.

The three spaceflyers currently on the orbiting lab will join millions of soccer fans on Earth cheering on the teams competing in the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament, set to begin Friday in Johannesburg, South Africa.

"We get together every evening for dinner and sit around the TV," said American astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson of NASA, on the typical routine at the station. "I bet you there will be some cheering around the table as we get World Cup soccer sent up to us."