They're beaming down dazzling images and guess-this-mystery-location photos via Twitter and have even launched a game. Landlubbers the world over are eating it up. From schoolchildren to grown-up business entrepreneurs and artists, the public is captivated and can't seem to get enough.
Known to his nearly 68,000 Twitter followers as Astro_Wheels, Wheelock has been posting impressive photos of the Earth and some of his thoughts ever since he moved into the space station in June, five months after it got Internet access. "It's been a real thrill to be able to do that," said Wheelock. Wheelock's photos this week included Mount Fuji in Japan as well as the aurora borealis, or northern lights, with a glittering space station solar wing in the foreground.Even the space station's newest American resident, Scott Kelly, has gotten into the act and already has nearly 10,000 followers on Twitter from around the world. Just this week, he kicked off a geography trivia game, posting an image of twinkling lights at night and what looks to be the outline of a boot. "This country's contributions to science include the barometer, electric battery, nitroglycerin and wireless telegraphy to boot. Name it!" Kelly wrote in his Twitter account Monday.