Group of agencies to mark 15th anniversary of space station with worldwide tweet
LONGUEUIL, Que. - Several space agencies are staging a global media event on Twitter this week to mark the 15th anniversary of the International Space Station.
The Canadian Space Agency, NASA, the European Space Agency and JAXA, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, will launch a worldwide wave on Twitter, beginning at 7 p.m. eastern Tuesday evening.
That will be midnight GMT — the official time zone of the orbiting space laboratory.
The four space agencies will issue 24 tweets related to the giant space station in 24 hours — one every 60 minutes at the top of every hour.
Twitter users can join in the conversation by using the hash tag #ISS15.
An official with the Canadian agency says there's been no indication from Russia that it would join the four other organizations in the global initiative.
Since the launch of Zarya, the first module of the International Space Station on Nov. 20, 1998, the five agencies have worked to build the massive structure which is about the size of football field.
According to NASA's website, the U.S.-funded Zarya, which means "Sunrise" in English, is an American component of the station, although it was built and launched by Russia.
