Astronaut Tops 1 Million Twitter Followers

October 07, 2009

The group of people who've left the Earth is a small, select club. Now, one of those people has joined a club that's a lot less important but still interesting. Astronaut Mike Massimino joined the group of people with more than 1 million followers on Twitter.Massimino flew in May aboard the final space shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space telescope, and became the first astronaut to tweet from space during that mission. He started on Twitter about a month before the launch, providing updates throughout his time in orbit, and continues to tweet about post-flight experiences and the life and work of an astronaut.

Other astronauts have joined Massimino on Twitter: Jeff Williams and Nicole Stott are tweeting from aboard space station Expedition 21. Astronaut Mark Kelly is slated to command the Space Shuttle next year, and Scott Kelly, his twin, is slated to take command of the International Space Station.

Massimino is the 138th most popular user on Twitter, ranked between #137 Richard Bacon, a self-described "minor celebrity BBC Radio Fivelive presenter," and #139 former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. 149 Twitter accounts have more than 1 million followers. By comparison, TwitDir, a Twitter directory, tracks 5.1 million "interesting twitterers."

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