In an email two weeks back, NASA Commander Scott Kelly sent good news that the ping pong paddles have finally reached aboard the International Space Station. After returning on Earth, a 22-year-old Gresham man had to wait for fifteen days to watch the viral video proof of his summer experiments.

A Portland State University engineering student, Karl Cardin, who designed four paddles composed of a hydrophobic polycarbonate material, said that they knew it would work.

It was finally worked on Thursday. Through a tweet, Kelly posted a mesmerizing minute-long video, displaying the water-repelling power of paddles.

The video featured bespectacled and bald Kelly, wearing a black shirt. He was holding two square-shaped paddle separated by nearly a forearm's-length distance. A spherical water drop floated between the both paddles. It was bouncing off one and toward the other. At the house of his parents, the family of Cardin has assembled around a computer screen to watch the video.

Cardin was happy and excited that finally his family could understand what he used to do with ‘those crazy ping pong paddles’.

Cardin, a Sam Barlow High School graduate, said that it was among those things that you don't really believe until you see it. He is expecting to complete his engineering degree this fall. He called it very exciting.

It was in previous summer when Cardin, a senior, began working at PSU's Dryden Drop Tower lab at the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science.

A predecessor had created similar paddles, intended for a different outer space mission. But, the paddles were aboard an unfortunate SpaceX Falcon 9 mission that exploded previous summer.

Soon after, Cardin collected the pieces, and began largely from scratch. He put in a lot of efforts on the material and laser-cut design. He collaborated with graduate and PhD candidates in PSU's ‘micro-gravity’ lab for the product testing.