It’s true! There’s at least one internet connection in space, and it’s one that’s been created by us humans. The first tweet from space was sent from the International Space Station (or I.S.S.) on Friday, January 22nd, 2010-–a good, futuristic way to start off the new decade. Wouldn’t you agree?
Timothy Creamer, the Astronaut whose Twitter name is Astro_TJ, wrote:
“Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station — the 1st live tweet from Space!
More soon, send your ?s.”
The New York Times Bits Blog spoke to CNET last year to find out how it was done:
The I.S.S.’s IT staff explained the logistics and hardware involved in connecting to the Internet 250 miles above the earth, while traveling at 17,300 mph. (Still not too fast for internet speed to catch!)
The space station is equipped with 68 IBM ThinkPad A31 laptops and 32 Lenovo ThinkPad T61p devices. The laptops are all connected via Wi-Fi access points, and there’s also a dedicated IP phone for phone calls and some limited video-conferencing abilities if astronauts need to see their families.
The Internet connection is also relatively speedy. The Astronauts have connections speeds as high as 3Mbps up and 10Mbps down, which is comparable to most home DSL connections.
But if you’re still thinking about the Twitter aspect of the tale, you can search check out the conversation on Twitter by typing “@Astro_TJ” into the Twitter search box.
Now that we know there’s an internet connection out there, the rest of us may be a bit more willing to make our own forays into space!
Tags: Internet Speed, Twitter, Wi-Fi