An interview with Col. Doug Wheelock, the first person to check in from space

Yesterday afternoon, NASA held a Tweetup featuring Space Station Commander Doug Wheelock (@Astro_Wheels), the first person to check in from space. He spoke about the many amazing photos that he posted on Twitter while he was aboard the International Space Station, his experience living through a critical failure of the station’s ammonia pump, and of course, his foursquare checkin and badge. You can see the full TweetUp video on NASA’s YouTube channel.

Wearing an actual NASA foursquare badge pinned to his shoulder, he said he was “telling everyone (he) was the first mayor of space,” but was disappointed to learn that he had to check in twice to become the mayor. “So I emailed Scott Kelly on orbit…and said you’d better check in twice if you want to put ‘Mayor of Space’ on your resumé when you get home,” he said.

Our own Ching Yu had a chance to catch up with Colonel Wheelock after the Tweetup and spoke with him about foursquare and the impact social media has had on the space program.