NASA crew to Tweet from Space, LIVE!

image 1 Now even NASA astronauts will Tweet and take questions on YouTube while in Space, to reconnect with the people on Earth.

NASA astronaut – Mark Polansky, during his crew’s mission to the International Space Station, has posted a video to NASA’s YouTube channel. The idea is to let YouTubers and Twitter fans ask questions via YouTube and follow mission updates over Twitter. Polansky, who is commanding this mission, will answer these questions, live from Space, in a way taking social media “out of this world”.

Mark Polansky says:

“Your questions and my answers from space will be broadcast nationwide on NASA television during the mission… My crew and I are ready to fly and looking forward to sharing the excitement with you.”

image 2 To ask a question through YouTube:

  • Create short videos of 30 seconds with the question and submit to YouTube.
  • Send the link to Polanky’s Twitter account via @ reply.
  • He will respond to questions on NASA TV which is broadcast worldwide.

Recently, NASA also launched a collection of Photosynth galleries of the ISS and Mars Rover. Looks like NASA is keen on reaching a bigger audience through the web and social networking sites. I think it’s a great move.

I am really excited about this. Being able to follow updates from our space heroes is totally awesome. Honestly, never really thought Twitter could reach such heights one day. Now even sky is not the limit!

(Source: LA Times)

5 Comments

Hash May 10, 2009

Interesting but I’m wondering how many $$$ are the Americans burning on this project… Remember the Pen that writes in space story?

Swati May 11, 2009

@Hash,
Oh yeah… The Space Pen… hard to forget…
NASA spent $12 million (and almost a decade!)… for a pen that could write in zero gravity, underwater, in almost any temperature. I found the whole idea of creating the Space Pen verrrrrry silly, especially when the Russians came across a similar problem/situation, and they simply chose to use a pencil instead. Problem solved! 😀 Hilarious!

ArpitNext May 11, 2009

🙂
thanks for this interesting info

Swati May 11, 2009

@ArpitNext,
Ur welcome! keep coming back to DW for more! 🙂

Scott Maxwell May 12, 2009

Sorry, the “space pen” story is an urban legend. See http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp for the truth.