ASTRONAUTS are giving a behind-the-scenes look at the space shuttle Atlantis’s high-risk mission to service the Hubble telescope, thanks to Twitter.
Mike Massimino, 47, blasted off into space today with six other crew members. But thanks to Twitter, the space veteran is keeping his promise to stay posted, even from space.
“Next stop: Earth Orbit!!” Massimino – whose Twitter account is Astro_Mike – wrote in his most recent tweet, posted just hours before takeoff.
Massimino, one of the mission’s specialists, already has 221,119 followers and had given Twitter updates during training last month in Houston.
“I’ll tweet when I can from orbit, but it might not be much,” Massimino said in an earlier tweet.
The current mission, STS-125, is Massimino’s second space flight. He had previously participated in a Hubble maintenance mission in 2002 (STS-109) during which he performed two spacewalks.
”Victory is ours”, Kutcher tweeted, describing the moment as a “changing of the guard”.
ACTOR Ashton Kutcher has become the first Twitterer to have one million followers on the popular micro-blogging website after a hotly-contested race against news network CNN.
But he could soon be challenged by newcomer Oprah Winfrey, if her early popularity is any indication. She sent her first tweet yesterday, and already has 165,000 followers.
Hosting Kutcher on her show, Winfrey typed “ASHTON IS NEXT” into a laptop to announce his interview.
That attempt was thwarted when she hit the wrong key. Her next tweet – “HI TWITTERS. THANK YOU FOR A WARM WELCOME. FEELING REALLY 21st CENTURY” – was successful.
Later in the day, Kutcher cracked open a bottle of champagne as he announced his victory live on Twitter and UStreamTV moments after he passed the one million mark.
Kutcher pledged $100,000 to the Malaria No More fund if he reached the one million mark first.
