Tweet Beat: It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s ... The First Twitter From Space

When Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, it was a big deal. Now that we rocket astronauts through the ether all the time, it takes more than a launch for NASA to make headlines. Enter Mike Massimino—the Armstrong of the digital age. Massimino sent the first tweet from space yesterday at 4:30 p.m. Check it out after the jump.

Massimino gave Twitter cosmic cred when he sent this 139-character post from the space shuttle Atlantis. Here’s the history-making tweet:

Massimino started tweeting in April, when he was getting ready for the mission, and he’s going to continue sending updates of his voyage. He already has more than 241,000 followers ready to hear all about the crew’s progress in repairing the Hubble Space Telescope.

But make sure to jump on this trend while it’s hot. Soon, space-tweets will be as ubiquitous as astronaut ice cream. Mark Polansky (@astro_127), the astronaut commander of the next mission to the International Space Station, has already started tweeting. Check him out. [CNN] — What’s next? Someone will have to find the lost island of Atlantis, dive a zillion miles undersea, and Twitter from inside one of its mythic castles to impress us.