I thought I was having a senior moment this week, when NASA announced the "first tweet from outer space this week," by astronaut TJ Creamer, who declared:
"Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International
Space Station — the 1st live tweet from Space! :) More soon, send your
?s"
Lots of press picked this up and declared this an historic moment.
Just like they declared it an historic moment on May 13, 2009, when Astronaut Mike Massimo stepped out of his spacecraft to repair a telescope. When he returned, as many of us reported, he tweeted:
"My spacewalk was amazing. We had some tough problems, but through them all, the view of our precious planet was beautiful."
The event got enough notice that @astro_mike now has over 1.3 million followers.
I recalled this instantly when I started seeing reports this week on Creamer's first tweet because I reported on the incident in Twitterville. What is remarkable is that a great many newspapers who reported Massimo's first tweet last year, reported Creamer's first tweet this week with seemingly no recollection of their own reports of eight months ago.
What about NASA? Well the may have some wiggle room, although I have my doubts. Last year, the question was raised on just how the first first tweet was actually sent. After all, there is no broadband in outer space. It turned out, that Massimo had relayed his message to a coworker who had the astronaut's twitter user ID and password. So the post actually came Florida, which is sometimes strange but always terrestrial.
So was Creamers the first space tweet that did not involved just a little bit of a cheat?
Not sure, because there still isn't anyway that's been explained on how you post a tweet from outer space.
I would ask NASA, but I have tried to interview them three times and all three times they ignored my requests and there's just so much rejection an earthling can take.
