Yeah, you read that right… a NASA Tweetup! I am one of the 150 lucky twitter users to be hand selected by NASA to attend the final ‘budgeted’ launch of the space shuttle Atlantis. When I first got the email that asked for my confirmation I immediately thought that there would be no way I could get off work for this. After politely asking my boss for the time off I was surprised to get the overwhelming response of ‘You have to go’. Which also happened to be the same response that I received from just about anyone I talked to about the event. So, with the days off squared away I had to find a place to stay. Luckily I have an Uncle that lives in Melbourne, FL who graciously is letting me stay at his place along with my Dad and Sister who are also traveling down to the launch.
For the first day of the event we will be speaking with a plethora of NASA employees, engineers and astronauts. After that, we will be given a tour of Kennedy Space Center which will include a tour of Launch Pad 39A to view retraction of the Rotating Service Structure. The second day we will take a group picture beside the countdown clock (4 hours before the launch). Then we will listen to a couple of more speakers. Then finally at 2:20pm (if everything goes as planned) we will watch the space shuttle Atlantis shoot into space for the last time ever!
During our visit we will be interviewed by members of the press and are expected to ‘tweet’ our experience for the world to see. I am bringing my laptop, cellphone and a HD video camera to record and document my experience during these two days. Triangle Harbor will be my hub for posting more complete details of the next couple of days but if you would like uncut raw ‘happenings’ in real time follow my Twitter account (@MikeAdamsNC)!
Check back for my Day 1 recap in the near future!
* Picture from the STS-129 Tweetup in 2009
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