NASA Lauds 'Gravity' Oscar Wins While Championing #RealGravity

The film "Gravity" won seven Academy Awards on Sunday evening, and NASA was quick to congratulate the filmmakers, while also promoting a little of what it calls "Real Gravity."

As Oscars kept rolling in for the film, NASA took to Twitter, posting a series of photos hashtagged #RealGravity, that it said were "images from real life in space."

The posts continued throughout the awards ceremony, urging NASA's 6 million Twitter followers to visit its Flickr page for "the real deal" on gravity.

It could be easy to read the messages the wrong way, as if NASA were chiding the fictional portrayal of real hard science at work. But NASA needs space films like “Gravity” to captivate audiences and garner accolades because anything that engages the public imagination about space is good PR for NASA.

As tech writer Matt McFarland of the Washington Post put it:

"The more we're thinking about space and enjoying those beautiful images is good for NASA. It can't complete its mission without a healthy budget. So taxpayers and lawmakers need to have a passion for space exploration."

Sunday night proved to be a big win for Alfonso Curaon's "Gravity," which took home seven of the 10 awards it was nominated for, including best director, best cinematography, best film editing, best original score, best visual effects, and best sound editing and mixing, and NASA lauded the filmmakers, as it was undoubtedly a big night for them.

But the night was also a big win for space lovers around the world.