Part celebration of Samantha Cristoforetti, the first Italian woman to fly into space, and part social network above the clouds, Friends in Space by Accurat lets you follow Cristoforetti on the six-month long journey to the International Space Station.

The homepage of Friend in Space is your real-time open window on the I.S.S. orbits. Here you will see where Samantha is right now, what she is doing, what she is looking at from above and who else is "out in space"
with you and her. Log in with one of your social accounts and make new friends: the little stars you see are the people that, just like you, are connected and want to share some time with Samantha and with all the space enthiusiasts from all over the world.

Cristoforetti is orbiting Earth fifteen times per day, and you can see her path in the wave-like line in the shot above. As she passes over you, you can say "hello" to her (or other people playing with the app). The closer overhead she is to you, the stronger the hello and the bigger the circles.

Collectively, everyone forms a networks of "stars" and you can see a sort of orbiting history in your "control room."

Seems fun. I think as more people check in on Cristoforetti and the crew and more things happen, it should get more interesting. There's also a live video feed pointed out the window towards Earth, with audio inside the cabin, but it's offline as I'm writing this. I imagine that could add nicely to the ambiance since the background image is just for show.

Say hello. [Thanks, Giorgia]

Tags: Accurat, space