First Vine Video from Space Posted by NASA Astronaut

by Megan Gannon, News Editor
Reid Wiseman posted the first Vine video from space on June 6, 2014

An astronaut in space has just taken the social video-sharing Vine app into the final frontier.

NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman created a 6-second time-lapse video with the mobile app Vine, showing a never-setting sun from 240 miles (386 kilometers) above Earth on the International Space Station. He shared the clip with the world on June 6.

"1st Vine from space! Single Earth orbit. Sun never sets flying parallel w/terminator line," Wiseman wrote in a message that accompanied the video. [Amazing Space Photos by NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman]

Because the crewmembers aboard the space station travel around Earth at 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour) every 92 minutes, they might see up to 16 sunrises and sunsets each day. But the sun never seems to rise or set when the station is aligned with the terminator line — the boundary where the darkness of night meets the sunlight of dusk and dawn.

Wiseman is a new resident at the space station. He launched for a six-month mission on May 28 aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule along with European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst of Germany and cosmonaut Maxim Suraev. They joined NASA's Steve Swanson and cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev on the orbiting outpost as part of the Expedition 40 crew.

Wiseman had been active on Vine before his launch, posting videos while training and working in Russia. He has also been posting amazing photos of the Earth from space on his Twitter account, sharing nighttime views of cities like Chicago and Dubai as well as shots of the planet's natural wonders like volcanic peaks in Chile and the coasts of Australia.

The 38-year-old astronaut is following in the footsteps of his NASA crewmate Swanson, who recently posted on the first Instagram photo sent from space — a selfie taken April 7 in the station's cupola, a multi-sided window that faces Earth.

NASA established an off-Earth social media presence several years earlier. Mike Massimino became the first astronaut to tweet from space in May 2009, writing in his inaugural message: "Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!" Since then, other spaceflyers have followed. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield skyrocketed to fame last year for the videos and tweets he beamed from the station, including a viral cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" that was viewed more than 22 million times.

You can follow Wiseman on Twitter and Vine.

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