Here we are at Wednesday August 17th; less than 22 days to the scheduled launch of NASA’s GRAIL moon mission. Here is what I’ve learned in the last week.
NASA has randomly selected 150 Twitter account holders (over 825 people applied, as opposed to over 5,500 that applied for the last Shuttle launch in July—including me). You can see the official participants list curated by NASA on Twitter. In addition, NASA also hosts a Wiki for attendees with more information and other Tweetup resources. The participants are mostly from the US, but according to the map there will be attendees from Australia and Europe as well (although apparently no one from Asia, Africa or South America). There’s an official Flickr group (Flickr is still around?) for pictures. There is a Facebook group, but it’s closed to non-participants (sorry), and a Google+ group (and, of course, I’m on Google+ if you want to get in touch). There’s even a list of all the bloggers who are attending (yours truly included—it seems, however, that I need a more catchy name for my blog).
Yesterday, I got the email from NASA directing me to sign up for credentials for the Tweetup. The forms I had to fill out online seemed to be a variation of the forms NASA uses for reporters requesting credentials for launches and other events at the Kennedy Space Center. So I’ve officially applied for security clearance and tweetup credentials. Woo hoo!
We still don’t have any information about speakers at the two-day event next month, but past tweetups have heard from mission managers and specialists, so I expect we will as well. There is also usually a celebrity guest speaker (Bill Nye was at the Juno tweetup) or two, and maybe even a celebrity (although probably not William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols and George Takei, as was briefly rumored—sigh). We do know we’re getting tours of some of the facilities, including “an opportunity and access most NASA employees have never had” according to our invitation. I’ll provide updates via my blog as I learn more.
This will be my first trip to the Kennedy Space Center in about 25 years. I’ve visited twice before and been on the public tours, but I’m really looking forward to seeing it again. And of course I’m looking forward to watching a launch from closer than I’ve ever seen one before. I’ve the Shuttle go up from Titusville, about 10 miles away; a Skylab crew launch from Cocoa Beach, about 12 miles away; and numerous launches on clear days from here in Naples, over 200 miles away. Interestingly enough, this will be the last ever Delta II Heavy launch, as well as the last launch from Launch Complex 17.
Finally, I’m really looking forward to meeting all of my fellow Tweetup participants and sharing the experience with all of you via social networking. It will be an amazing two days.
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