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"Astronaut Ron Garan not only carries out NASA missions in the International Space Station, but he also finds moments to sends tweets from miles above Earth.\nSpeaking back on land at the 2013 SXSW conference, Garan \u2014 AKA Astro_Ron on Twitter \u2014 says the crew has an Internet connection aboard the International Space Station.\n\"We have a ... downlink of a data path that we can control a computer on the ground as a slave computer,\" Garan says.\nGaran believes a lot of people would be surprised at how \"wonderful\" the space experience is.\n\"I think a lot of people think, 'oh, you're\u00A0cooped\u00A0up inside of a can and things are floating all over the place,\" he says. \"But it's really a very wonderful experience. It's a wonderful place to live and work. And the view is just amazing.\"\nGaran says the view of Earth from space really gives the sense that the planet is a \"living, breathing organism.\"\nSEE ALSO:\u00A0How SpaceX Saved the Dragon Spacecraft from Certain Doom\nWhen going into space, astronauts are allowed to take personal items, according to Garan.\n\"A lot of us take mementos from our families, maybe some pictures, things like that,\" Garan said, adding that he took some pictures of his family and special mementos from schools he's attended.\nGaran says astronauts on the Space Shuttle Discovery took New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning's Super Bowl jersey into space. And next time he's above Earth, Garan promised he'll take Mashable Editor-in Chief-Lance Ulanoff's business card up there.\nAt SXSW, Garan even stopped by to visit Grumpy Cat:\n\n.@mashable All of a sudden I felt very grumpy at #sxsw twitter.com/Astro_Ron/stat\u2026\n\u2014 Ron Garan (@Astro_Ron) March 10, 2013\n\nHomepage image by Mashable/NowThisNews\n      window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement('script');js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};\n_msla(\"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\",\"twitter_jssdk\");"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/03/11/astronaut-ron-garan-sxsw/>