Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer broadcast the following message directly from the International Space Station. NASA has set up an impressive wireless connection that provides astronauts on International Space Station.
“Hello Twitterverse!,” wrote Creamer, under the Twitter user name Astro_TJ. “We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station—the 1st live tweet from Space! ,” Creamer said.
NASA said Creamer was the first astronaut to send an “unassisted” Twitter message from space.
Previous “tweets” from space were actually sent by astronauts by email to the ground and support personnel posted them to their Twitter account.
The astronauts on the International Space Station have connected to the Web through Crew Support LAN, which significantly enhances the private communication access that astronauts have while floating above the Earth. Creamer, along with his crew mates Jeff Williams and Soichi Noguchi, is using the access to post Twitter updates about their mission.
NASA astronauts have posted updates on Twitter in the past, but they first had to be relayed to Mission Control. Now, residents of the ISS can post directly to the micro-blogging site thanks to a new, direct Internet connection.
Two other astronauts aboard the space station, commander Jeff Williams and Soichi Noguchi of Japan, also have a Twitter account at @NASA_Astronauts.