Hot Issues,Trends,Discussions: Hello Twitterverse: First Tweet From Space

Hello Twitterverse: First Tweet From Space

Twitter has rocketed into outer space, thanks to a Nasa software upgrade on the international space station that allows astronauts to update their feeds themselves.

A new, high-powered wireless connection has been established between orbiters and groundlings, allowing crews to post tweets directly from their spacecraft.
Flight Engineer TJ Creamer posted the first tweet on January 22 from aboard Nasa Expedition 22.
He said: "Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station -- the 1st live tweet from Space! :) More soon, send your ?s"
Previous tweets from astronauts have had to be emailed to ground control and then posted to astronauts' accounts by Nasa's administrative team.
Creamer, along with ISS Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi, had been attempting to post directly to the social networking site since January 4, but had been stymied due to technical issues.
Commander Williams expressed his pride in Nasa's achievement, with his own first space tweet which read: "It's good to be on line! Appreciate the great job of the team who made it work!"
The new powerful web connection, called the Crew Support LAN, takes advantage of existing communication links to and from the station, allowing astronauts to browse and use the web.t is expected that this development will enhance the crew's personal lives during long missions, easing the isolation associated with life in a closed environment.
In addition to this new capability, the crew will continue to have official e-mail, a web-based telephone and some videoconferencing capabilities.
According to Nasa, astronauts will be subject to the same computer use guidelines as government employees on Earth.