On 2 March 2016, NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly and his Russian counterpart, Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, returned from an out-of-this-world one-year space mission aimed to test the limits of human endurance in space.
With the hashtag #AYearInSpace, the one-of-a-kind mission took off with millions of spectators following the year-long adventure. Astronaut Kelly constantly tweeted, posted content on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook (including Facebook Live Sessions), and SnapChat. While tumbling around in zero gravity aboard the ISS, Astronaut Kelly even hosted an AMA session on Reddit.
Details of the campaign:
- Active: 27 March 2015–2 March 2016
- Mechanics: Following Scott Kelly’s journey using the hashtag #AYearInSpace on all social media channels.
“Through an active and phenomenal presence on social media, NASA not only kept spectators posted, but had also garnered thousands of new followers, and spread awareness.”
What they’ve achieved with UGC:
- Kelly now has 946,000 followers, and has posted over 788 “out of this world” images of life from the space station to the hashtag #YearinSpace.
- NASA managed to generate a deeper interest among the public about the science of space and the organization’s missions.
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