London: Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi,
who has already made his name as a prolific Twitterer, has
gone one step better this time by posting spectacular videos
of Earth and the Moon on his own YouTube channel.
He posted today a two-minute footage of the Earth filmed
from the window of the new observation deck on the orbiter on
the International Space Station, the Daily Mail reported.
"Welcome to the journey over Madagascar! Enjoy the
out-of-the-world view," Noguchi wrote as the caption for his
video that clearly shows the world's fourth largest island
under patchy cloud, as the space station zooms at 17,500 MPH
over head.
The 44-year-old astronaut, who has 125,000 followers on
Twitter and regularly sends live pictures from the ISS, had
sent last week a one minute clip showing the Moon slowly
setting into the horizon.
Noguchi has been orbiting 200 miles above Earth since
December 2009 and is due to come back this June. His last ISS
mission was in 2005.
He was taking advantage of the Italian-made cupola
installed on the new Tranquility module last month.
The 17-million pound observation deck has one central
window and six outer windows, which give panoramic views.
It is used by crew members to operate the robotic arms on
the station as well as monitor the approach of supply ships,
the report said.
Noguchi is the only astronaut on video sharing website
YouTube and is by far the most active of the ISS crew on
Twitter, posting in both English and Japanese.
Today he said the crew have a rest day "except for a few
medical ops and our favourite exercise time".
The micro-blogging service seems particularly suited to
the busy astronauts, who can use it to describe their daily
routines in just 140 characters.
The first live Twitter post was sent by astronaut Timothy
Creamer on January 25, after the space station finally went
online this year.
Before this astronauts were sending Twitter updates to
Houston Mission Control which would then post on their behalf.
-PTI
First Published: Monday, March 15, 2010, 21:35