Public invited to question NASA astronauts via Twitter

(AFP PHOTO/LOIC VENANCE)

With astronauts now sending a steady stream of "tweets" from space, NASA is inviting the public to ask them questions using the popular micro-blogging service.

The US space agency said astronaut Mike Massimino at Mission Control in Houston, Texas, will relay questions submitted over the next few days to the crew of Endeavor.

They will be answered during a live 20-minute question-and-answer session beginning at 3:24 am (0824 GMT) on February 11 which will also be shown on the Web and on NASA Television, NASA said.

Questions should be sent to Massimino's Twitter feed at @astro_Mike.

Endeavor is scheduled to blast off Sunday on a mission to the International Space Station, where two other astronauts, Timothy "TJ" Creamer, a NASA flight engineer, and Japan's Soichi Noguchi, have been "tweeting" regularly.

Creamer's Twitter account is @Astro_TJ while Noguchi "tweets" at @Astro_Soichi.

Besides 140-character-or-less messages, Noguchi has been using Twitpic to send spectacular pictures of Earth as seen from space, including views of Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Fuji and other landmarks.

Creamer sent the first "tweet" from space two weeks ago after getting a personal Web connection on the International Space Station.

Massimino, who flew on the space shuttle Atlantis in May, also "tweeted" from space but needed an assist from the ground to get his message out.

Previous "tweets" from space were actually sent by by email to the ground and support personnel posted them to Twitter accounts.