Historic Words ‘Hello Twitterverse!”

Social media became truly universal this year when on Jan. 22 flight engineer T.J. Creamer, of NASA Expedition 22 on the International Space Station, posted the first tweet from somewhere other than Earth. In his first tweet Creamer wrote: “Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station — the 1st live tweet from Space! 🙂 More soon, send your ?s”

In May 2009, NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, a mission specialist on STS-125, sent tweets from orbit, but they had to be e-mailed to Mission Control and then posted by NASA staff to his account. Now, tweets from space can be posted directly by way of a new, direct Internet connection.

Astronauts on the International Space Station can now surf the web and e-mail family and friends. The wireless connection, called the Crew Support LAN, uses existing communication links.

Back on Earth, the Space Foundation posts regularly on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. See the most recent press releases, photos, and comments on Facebook and LinkedIn.

“Social media, as NASA well knows, provides excellent opportunity for real, two-way conversation,” said Janet Stevens, Space Foundation vice president – communications. “We would love to hear from our fans and supporters on our site.”

The Space Foundation staff tweets at least daily, and plans to tweet hourly from the 26th National Space Symposium in April, as well as inviting attendees to tweet.

Pictured: Astronaut T.J. Creamer

 

This article is part of Space Watch: Februrary 2010 (Volume: 9, Issue: 2).