We were the first to break the story of NASA Astronaut Mike Massimino (@Astro Mike, ), and how he had officially become the first person to tweet from outer space. We were excited, genuinely, as were many of you upon reading it.
The tweet said:
“From orbit: Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!”
Since then, NASA, newspapers, blogs and other publishing outlets have promoted the news and credited Massimino as being the first to do it.
The Truth.
Today however, the Orlando Sentinel, has reported that the updates have in fact been posted via a NASA employee with his feet firmly on the ground. The employee receives emails from Massimino and posts them on his behalf on to his Twitter profile. Additionally, the updates are often hours after Massimino has emailed them.
James Hartsfield, a NASA spokesman, has attempted to tame the frustrations of Twitter users, some of whom feel they have been lied to, by saying:
“It’s as close as you can possibly get to a post from space,” Hartsfield said. “Anything you are going to do from space is going to pass through some type of hands before it gets to its final destination on the Internet. … Maybe someday in the future, for the space station, they will have (Internet access), and then it can be a little more streamlined.”
What do you think? Is the fact that Massimino isn’t directly posting from space a disappointment or are you just happy to know they are actually his words?
I think the title of the post clearly indicates my personal opinion.
*Update: Thank you to the number of people who have submitted the link to his tweet saying “”I will be able to twitter from space if I have time. I will email tweets to NASA who’ll fwd them. No promises but I will try my best.” The fact still remains however, the main issue I have with this is that we posted that @Astro_Mike was the first person to tweet from space. We were wrong.
I’m fine with it! At least it’s really what he’s been saying/feeling/thinking etc. I run some blogs for a large website and recently had a guy climb everest. The only way to keep in touch was via his sattelite phone sending emails, so he sent them to us and we’d pop them up as soon as possible after we received them. So he wasn’t “posting” on the blog himself, but it was done on his behalf, and all his own words!
It’s wonderful that he has made it so clear but the fact still stands. He is not personally tweeting to Twitter himself. He is emailing.
Dave, always a pleasure :) Unfortunately I don’t watch the show, so yeah – had no idea…
It’s the timing and location factor. The updates aren’t coming from space and they’re often hours later.
For crying out loud, he said this would be the case himself.
http://twitter.com/Astro_Mike/status/1676124868
Get over it.
OK, so he’s not logging on to Twitter.com over a (presumably) 9.6 kbps connection.
He’s writing the content though. This is the key thing and the closest it’ll come for some time yet.
Don’t get the axe out!
It’s only half a joke.
It really would be a bad idea to put the shuttle on the net, cause what if it did get hacked? I’m surprised they even let the Internet into NASA headquarters. Maybe that person enters the tweets from home or in their car driving to work?
If you watched Battlestar Galactica you’d know that the number one issue for military spacecraft are hacker attacks over the Internet. So it’s a damned good thing they don’t have direct Internet access up there, otherwise they’d crash for sure!
I don’t see the point. Why is it relevant how he gets his update to Twitter? Would you be disappointed if he used Twitterific instead of directly posting on twitter.com?
yes yes, but NASA and other media outlets haven’t pointed this out
Indeed, it would definitively be nicer if the updates would be realtime. I do think the updates are “from space”. I don’t think anything magical is lost when somebody copy-pastes the text :-).
Firstly, take a chill pill.
Secondly. I’m not pretending at all. It’s the timing and location factor. The updates aren’t coming from space and they’re often hours later.
Um, this is hardly a secret. @Astro_Mike tweeted that e-mail was going to be used as a relay weeks before launch: http://twitter.com/Astro_Mike/status/1676124868
Why didn’t he just use TwitterMail.com? Would have solved everything! :-)
“So @Astro_Mike hasn’t really been tweeting from space after all.”
Er, way to miss the wood for the trees, zee. Who gives a toss if he’s signed into twitter.com, sending them by SMS, IMing them or marking them on paper with his piss, putting it in a bottle and launching it to Earth with instructions that the finder should post them to Twitter?
The key point is he’s doing it *from space*, and we’re all getting to see it as quick as possible. *SPACE* is the cool thing about this, Twitter is just ancillary.
You don’t have to be at the website to Tweet. Many people use RSS bots to take their feeds and put them on Twitter. So If he’d used an email-to-RSS-to-Twitter bot would he be sufficiently tweeting then for you to get over your bullshit pedantry — still wouldn’t be directly going to Twitter, would he?
Also: as for “The Truth”: Josh has already destroyed you here, though you’re pretending it’s really about whether or not he’s signed in directly to a website, as if anyone cares about that.
You thought you were outing a big cover-up, when there’s nothing of the case. Your pathetic story had nothing to do with whether or not he was actually tweeting as you’re trying now to spin it, you wanted to try and out him as a liar. He never once lied!
This is a non-story, and you don’t deserve a title with “Editor” in it. You didn’t even read his damn feed first to check!
Here’s my take on the subject : Here’s a Dollar in change, call someone that cares, Lol.
Are you MIke? Or perhaps his wife? You’re taking this awfully personally.
They are MANUALLY reposted by someone on earth hours later, that is the difference.
Now, go take a cold shower…you’re burning up.
Ah, a little calmer now :) Yes, I agree with you regarding the “When typing on Twitter.com is more important than the content and context of the tweets, something’s wildly askew.” – however, my main gripe is we posted the fact that this was in fact the first tweet from outerspace – and really, it wasn’t.
“It’s the timing and location factor. The updates aren’t coming from space and they’re often hours later.”
They aren’t coming from space? Where are they coming from? Hint: everything that comes “from space” passes through an earth-bound proxy. This charge would carry some weight if it was an anonymous Nasa PR person writing them, but it isn’t. They’re being written in space, and they’re being put on Twitter.
The distinction you’re trying to draw between A Real Tweet and — I don’t even know what you think they are, Fake Tweets, perhaps? — what Mike’s doing is completely specious. He’s updating his Twitter stream, and he’s causing it to happen from space.
There are umpteen ways to update twitter. In this case, Mike’s twitter client is a real person sitting in space control. That’s just as valid a way of doing it as updating via SMS. A proxy vote is still a vote, a proxy tweet is still a tweet.
But since your “coverup” story fell down, the distinction is all you have left, isn’t it? If Twitter allowed updates by email, you’d have nothing left but ashes. You’re right, there’s a disappointment here. It’s not Mike, though.
Zee,
Stop digging, eh? I count four versions so far:
1. Hey, Nasa lies exposed!1!
2. Well, actually, it’s about the time and location!
3. Well, it’s about whether it was done MANUALLY, then.
4. No, The “main issue” is that we posted it was the first Tweets from space!
4 has to be the worst yet. It bears no relation to the original story, and I’m not sure what the point is: to show that you don’t do your research? Mike posted how it worked, and you published wrongly *anyway*. So what are you “disappointed” about? In your own performance?
I see the difference, but the reason I’m heated is the thought that it’s a disappointment. It strikes me as a stunning lack of perspective when the thing to get excited about is not a man in space, but a man personally typing into a particular form field on a website. When typing on Twitter.com is more important than the content and context of the tweets, something’s wildly askew.
i would shower, but I don’t have Shower 2.0, so what’s the point?