Tag Archives: Michael Massimino
Mike Massimino Begins Tweeting Hubble Space Mission
About a month ago I wrote about how Michael Massimino is preparing to tweet from outer space. Massimino’s mission is to overhaul the Hubble telescope. Well Massimino is keeping up to his promise to live tweet from space under the username Astro_Mike.
He has sent out the following tweets since arriving in space:
Massimino is the first astronaut to “tweet from space.” Massimino is not necessarily live updating because he writes an e-mail to support personnel on Earth that update his Twitter account for him.
For those of you that have a problem and don’t consider that really tweeting, put this into perspective. Only recently have they discovered how to get WiFi on plans and that is only 30,000-40,000 feet from the ground. On average, the moon is about 238,000 feet away from Earth.
Michael Massimino Prepares To Twitter In Space
Michael Massimino also known as @Astro_Mike is getting ready to tweet from outer space. Massimino is currently training for overhauling the Hubble Space Telescope. Massimino will be launching into space on May 12 aboard NASA space shuttle Atlantis.
“Practicing approaches and landings with my crew in the space shuttle simulator,” tweeted Massimino about an hour ago. Massimino has done two spacewalks so far. Massimino’s 11 day space mission includes 5 spacewalks and will help extend the Hubble’s lifetime to at least 2014.
Last time Massimino travelled to space, he did some maintenance work to the Hubble telescope. This time around he will be replacing batteries and gyroscopes on the telescope along with attaching a docking ring for future robotic vehicles to make repairs to the telescope’s systems.
This mission is quite a bit riskier than routine missions because it the shuttle is not bound for the International Space Station. If the orbiter suffers from damage, astronauts could take refuge at the International Space Station, but in this case Atlantis will have to fly at a higher orbit and different inclination than the station. If an emergency is necessary, NASA would send a second space shuttle from the launch pad in Florida as a rescue team.
Massimino will be using a mobile device to update Twitter messages. He is currently the only NASA astronaut to use the micro-blogging tool for space agency business.
“Social media is a large and growing sector of communications,” stated NASA spokesperson James Hartsfield. “So this is a very neat thing and it offers Mike a chance to connect with the public.”
[via FOXNews]