back to article Web2.0rhea infects International Space Station

A US astronaut has made a giant leap in social-networking history by sending the first tweet from space. Space cadet Timothy Creamer, aka Astro_TJ, sent the historic missive Friday morning from the International Space Station, which had just received a software upgrade to allow real-time web access. The first tweet from space …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    I actually love it!

    As much as I loath the mundane blatherings of the common Twit, I really like astronauts twittering from space. The Adventure! Right on your desktop!

    Just don't forget to un-follow them after their return to earth. Their twits quickly dissolve into the same "We're on $tv_show today" routine.

  2. batfastad
    Jobs Horns

    Only now?

    So thye've only just managed to get live internet access up there? What the hell had to happen before, screen reader over the radio? Surely they could have knocked up even dial-up speed. Bet they send all their space data and moon pictures down to NASA way quicker than that anyway.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I think they had other stuff to worry about

      like getting enough power to run the urine reprocessing plant and finding just the right spot for their lolcats calendar

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      lag

      Laaaaaaaaag

      1.3s (minimum)... Still better than nothing. I wonder what data rate they get, I'd assume something akin to satellite internet, 8mbits etc.

      They say 140char efficiency, but from the looks of it, they did the message, THEN looked for ways to crop it down. I don't think your average astronaut will talk in R U and other kind of text speak normally.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Coat

        At what orbit is the ISS?

        I am curious to where you get the number 1.3 seconds from. I have tried fiddling a bit with it and with the speed of light being about 300 thousand kilometers per second that gives us a travel distance for the signal 390 thousand kilometers. Now that is the average distance between the earth and it's moon. Since the signal will have to go both ways we need to divide that number by two. So do you think that the ISS is orbiting at an altitude of half the distance to the moon?

        To try answer Batfastad's question:

        1. It is not a trivial thing to establish. Due to it's orbit it has to change downlink stations rapidly. Not something that is very common on the Internet. My guess is that all the traffic is routed by some other protocols from the ISS to a fixed location on earth where it has a bridge connection to the Internet. Not trivial, but not extremely hard either. Something they would have solved earlier if it hadn't been for point number two.

        2. Why? There is nothing on Internet that is of any interest to an astronaut, and if it were; not something they would have to retrieve for themselves. If they need some information on something they have a big crew at mission control to fetch for them, and lets hope that crew has other sources than Wikipedia. So what about entertainment I hear you say. Well, if you need to be entertained while floating about in space you need to get yourself another job. Besides, it is not like they didn't have a datalink. I bet the guys at mission control could send them the latest episode of Doctor Who via some other means.

        My guess is that they did this for PR reasons, and PR reasons only.

        Mines the white body suit with a helmet.

        1. Marcus Aurelius
          Paris Hilton

          Simples

          1. Due to it's orbit it has to change downlink stations rapidly. Not something that is very common on the Internet....

          Why not? Transitioning basestations has presumably been achieved for all other traffic to from the space station, and is a relatively trivial problem for just about every single cellphone system.

          2. There is nothing on Internet that is of any interest to an astronaut, and if it were; not something they would have to retrieve for themselves

          Months in space, no females or porn? What could possibly be of interest on the Internet I wonder....

          Paris, because she knows what every astronaut needs....

  3. Graham Marsden
    Coat

    But...

    ... isn't this in breach of FCC rules on the use of mobile devices in flight...?!

  4. Juiceman
    Coat

    Spacebook friend request

    How long before someone gets fired for non-productivity due to surfing the web all day instead of working?

    Box up your belongings and we'll escort you to the airlock, sir.

    Mine's the one with the stapler embossed "ISS" in the pocket....

  5. Tony Paulazzo
    Alien

    its not quite

    'One small step..' memorable really.

    tweet 5437: weightless again today, did some science stuff

    tweet 8245: pretty boring today, spot on my bum, mite c doc

    tweet 95674: holy crap! giant... DELETED

  6. windywoo
    Thumb Up

    Their next tweet will be

    Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do.

  7. Mos Eisley Spaceport
    Thumb Down

    In space

    Millions can hear you twitter!

    Oh dear!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Welcome

    Here's to future tweets from robotic missions too:

    @SpiritRover is stuck in a sandtrap

    1 day ago from Mars

    @SpiritRover is stuck in a sandtrap

    2 days ago from Mars

    @SpiritRover is stuck in a sandtrap

    3 days ago from Mars

    @SpiritRover is stuck in a sandtrap

    4 days ago from Mars

    @SpiritRover is stuck in a sandtrap

    5 days ago from Mars

    @SpiritRover is stuck in a sandtrap

    6 days ago from Mars

    @SpiritRover is stuck in a sandtrap

    1 week ago from Mars

  9. DZ-Jay

    NOOOOO!

    This is so sad. I am so very disappointed.

    An astronaut tweeting? It bursts my bubble.

    I feel like a kid who goes to the mall to meet Santa Claus, and then catches a glimpse of the man when off duty, noticing that he is only a fat, drunken slob with a fake beard, who swears at store clerks and spits on the floor.

    Thank you NASA! Astronauts have now been irrevocably take off my list of Cool, Smart People I Admire.

    -dZ.

  10. Steven Raith
    Thumb Up

    10mb/3mb down/up?

    So NASA can do for a space station what BT can't manage for a house half a mile from the exchange?

    Or have they just got a fucking huge Cantenna? [google it]

    I await with interest the tweet that says "Houstn, we hv a prblm LOLWUT FAIL ORLY!!1!1"!21!one"

    Steven R

  11. thomas k.
    Thumb Up

    I guess we know what that means ...

    "The ISS's new Crew Support LAN, which NASA calls the "ultimate wireless connection," is intended "to enhance [astronauts'] quality of life" during those cold and lonely days circling the earth at over 17,000 miles per hour."

    I imagine lag would preclude MMOs so I'll go with pr0n.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Those ThinkPads had better be fully patched

    how tempting a target would this be for spacespammers?

  13. Stuart Castle Silver badge
    Alert

    Ye Gods, if this isn't a great example of dumbing down.

    So, NASA take some incredibly intelligent men (Astronauts are normally assumed to be intelligent), spend millions training each one so they are at the top of their field.

    They spend millions more providing a working internet connection to "improve the Astronauts quality of life", and what do the Astronauts do? Go set up Twitter accounts and tweet..

    Who says the human race is dumbing down? Well, erm, me..

  14. Deltrak_Ames
    Happy

    It's trad, dad, egad

    Nice to see ancient traditions upheld: that the first message via a new medium should be gormless.

    BTW, any bets on how long before spammers start abusing the ISS? (Cures for thruster failure, &c.)

  15. Rattus Rattus

    If he'd omitted

    the extraneous dash (in the -- bit), the damn smiley and the unnecessary space that followed it, he'd have had room to write out 'first' in full as well as 'are' instead of 'r'. I thought these people were supposed to be role models?

  16. Winkypop Silver badge
    Joke

    Houston....

    ...we have a 404.

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