Summary: NASA has long been of a mind to share information with the public. By and large, however, the mass new media is only interested in headlines and breaking news. They are not interested in the day-to-day happenings. As any space enthusiast knows, nothing that happens in space is routine. Nothing. Think about it, NASA has been supporting a 5-bedroom mobile home (slightly bigger than a double-wide) in the vacuum of space for several years. That’s incredible, not routine. Every single day, there are amazing new things happening, and the folks at NASA are more than excited to share it with us. Since the mass media is not interested in the day-to-day, NASA has found a way to reach out to the public directly. Twitter. During the early days of the Mars Phoenix mission, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory created a Twitter account for the rover. This gave enthusiasts, folks like you and I, the ability to follow along with the mission. The issues, the triumphs, the failures and successes of the little robot. It brought the mission to life, and even though it was a gazillion miles away, we felt close to it. Then NASA found a way to bring the public even closer. Tweetups. They started small at first, and were a huge hit right off the bat. Now the enthusiasts and fans were able to share in the experience together, to meet other Space Tweeps face-to-face, and to build lasting relationships with other space enthusiasts. I was an attendee at the first NASA Tweetup to take place during a space shuttle launch. You can read about my experience here. The tradition has continued, and now NASA is having Tweetups on a regular basis. You can see what Tweetups NASA is hosting and get registered for them here. STS-134 was the final mission for Space Shuttle Endeavour. There is only one more shuttle launch scheduled, that of Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-135. After that, the entire Space Shuttle fleet will be retired. This short video was filmed on-location at the NASA Press Site in the hours after the launch of Endeavour. Thirteen of the attendees of the NASA Tweetup were gracious enough to tell me about their experience at the event. They all share a common experience, and now I wish to share that experience with you. I wish to sincerely thank those of you who took the time to tell me about your experience at the NASA Tweetup. Lisa Bain Leigh Checkman Heather Good Rebekah Labar Susan Mazza Natala Menezes Rob Pegoraro Geoff Ryken Claudia Saleh Beth Schaefer Kiran Srivastava Sarah Williver J.B Zimmerman Special thanks also goes out to Bodgan for letting me use some of his music in the video. You can find more of his great work at facebook.com/bogdanmusic / Bogdan.
