Public to tweet with astronauts
2010-02-07 19:31
Washington - With astronauts now sending a steady stream of "tweets" from space, Nasas inviting the public to ask them questions using the popular micro-blogging service.
The US space agency said astronaut Mike Massimino at Mission Control in Houston, Texas, will relay questions submitted over the next few days to the crew of Endeavour.
They will be answered during a live 20-minute question-and-answer session beginning at 08:24 GMT on February 11 which will also be shown on the web and on Nasa Television, NASA said.
Questions should be sent to Massimino's Twitter feed at @astro_Mike.
Endeavour is scheduled to blast off on Sunday on a mission to the International Space Station, where two other astronauts, Timothy "TJ" Creamer, a Nasa flight engineer, and Japan's Soichi Noguchi, have been "tweeting" regularly.
Creamer's Twitter account is @Astro_TJ while Noguchi "tweets" at @Astro_Soichi.
Besides 140-character-or-less messages, Noguchi has been using Twitpic to send spectacular pictures of Earth as seen from space, including views of Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Fuji and other landmarks.
Creamer sent the first "tweet" from space two weeks ago after getting a personal web connection on the International Space Station.
Massimino, who flew on the space shuttle Atlantis in May, also "tweeted" from space but needed an assist from the ground to get his message out.
Previous "tweets" from space were actually sent by by e-mail to the ground and support personnel posted them to Twitter accounts.
- SAPA
