Timothy “TJ” Creamer, a NASA flight engineer, sent the Twitter message from his @Astro_TJ account.<\/p>\n
“Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station — the 1st live tweet from Space! :) More soon, send your ?s,” Creamer wrote.<\/p>\n
NASA said Creamer was the first astronaut to send an “unassisted” Twitter message from space.<\/p>\n
Previous “tweets” from space were actually sent by astronauts by email to the ground and support personnel posted them to their Twitter account.<\/p>\n
The US space agency said Creamer was able to use Twitter directly because a software upgrade this week gave astronauts aboard the space station personal access to the Internet via what NASA called the “ultimate wireless connection.”<\/p>\n
The new communications system gives astronauts access to the Web and will provide them with “direct private communications to enhance their quality of life during long-duration missions,” NASA said.<\/p>\n
Two other astronauts aboard the space station, commander Jeff Williams and Soichi Noguchi of Japan, also have a Twitter account at @NASA_Astronauts.<\/p>\n