2010: A Twitter Odyssey: NASA astronaut sends the first tweet from spa

Forty years after walking on the moon, human beings have sent the first tweet from space.  US astronaut Timothy J Creamer tweeted to his thousands of followers live from space earlier this week.

What did he say?

If you thought that being in space might have filled Creamer with inspiration, you'll be disappointed, his tweet read simply, 'Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station -- the 1st live tweet from Space! :) More soon, send your ?s'.

Internet in space

Until recently, astronauts had to co-operate with colleagues on the ground to get online.  Now, though, there's no need for a middleman and it's possible to connect directly to the Internet from space.  That includes posting to Twitter from 'up there', or just reading the comments and questions from his 24 000 fascinated followers.

One small step for social networking, then?

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