Twitter Followers to See Space Shuttle Launch
The final launch of the space shuttle program is scheduled for 11:26 a.m. EDT on July 8, and NASA has invited 150 followers of the agency’s Twitter account to be there.
People selected will have a behind-the-scenes perspective from the press site at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA randomly selected the participants from more than 5,500 online registrants during a 24-hour opportunity on June 1-2. Attendees represent 44 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K.
[ Also Read: Can Twitter Cover Moon, Mars and Jupiter? ]Tweetup participants will share their experiences with more than 1.5 million combined followers through the social networking site Twitter.
Beginning at 10:30 a.m. on July 7, NASA will broadcast a portion of the Tweetup when participants get to talk with Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations, astronaut Mike Massimino and Angie Brewer, space shuttle Atlantis’ flow director at Kennedy.
Joining them will be a special guest, Sesame Street’s Elmo. Sesame Street will be at Kennedy to film Elmo, as he learns about space exploration at NASA.
To watch the broadcast, visit: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasatelevision
Participants also will tour Kennedy; make an up close visit to the launch pad, and wave at Atlantis’ crew members on their drive to the launch pad. The Tweetup culminates with the shuttle’s lift off.
This is the fifth time NASA has invited Twitter followers to experience a space shuttle launch. Previously, groups attended lift offs of Atlantis’ STS-129 and STS-132 missions, Discovery’s STS-133 mission, and Endeavour’s STS-134 mission.
To follow the Tweetup participants on Twitter, as they experience the prelaunch events and shuttle liftoff, you can follow the #NASATweetup hashtag and the list of attendees at: http://twitter.com/nasatweetup/sts-135-launch
Photo courtesy: NASA
