Reid Wiseman is not the first astronaut to share images from the final frontier, but he is one of NASA’s first social media stars, giving us a firsthand look of what it’s like to be in space with a view we haven’t quite experienced before.
Wiseman journeyed to the most exclusive address in the world, the International Space Station, on May 28, 2014. Since his arrival, the former aviator has been tweeting about life aboard the ISS and the ins and outs of adjusting to zero gravity to his more than 300,000 Twitter followers.
“It’s the most difficult but it’s also the most enjoyable part of being up here,” Wiseman said. “Your body has to learn a new way to work, to think, to eat. It’s just really, really cool.”
His constant stream of jaw-dropping photos, rookie mistakes and insights into life in space has attracted a global audience. He hasn’t showered in more than 100 days, drinks coffee from a bag and has to exercise for hours a day just so his muscles don’t decay, but his excitement and enthusiasm are still just as strong as they were the day of his launch.
“It’s pretty tough to be homesick when you’re floating around going 18,000 miles an hour in the space station,” he said. “This is a wild, great place to work.”
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It’s also a world he wants young minds across the country to get excited about, and he holds regular video chats with students to field their many questions.
“What they're most curious about usually is the imaginative stuff - how do you go to the bathroom, what do you eat, what's it like to float, what's it like to look back at the earth?” he said.
Wiseman returns to Earth in November, when he’ll have to once again adjust to gravity. Until then, space enthusiasts will savor each tweet from 200 miles away.
