Oct
30
NASATweetUp: The Journey Begins
NASA Tweet-up: I’m on my way! So here we go – SpaceKate is on the move. I finally finished packing and I’m currently up in the air looking down on candy-floss puffs of white cloud and the deep blue of the Atlantic ocean. The adventure begins!
I’m off to watch the launch of STS-133, or in less geek-speak, NASA’s space shuttle Discovery, with 149 other lucky Twitter addicts. I’m impressed by NASA’s recent burst of social media activity, location apps Foursquare and Gowalla have recently announce tie-ins with the space agency, with astronaut Douglas Wheelock being the first person to check-in on Foursquare in space. A nice little publicity stunt.
The tweet-up I’m attending will result in a flood of multimedia content produced by the attendees and shared with friends, colleagues, pupils, and the world! I’ve never seen a shuttle launch before, so I’m bound to get stupidly over-excited about the whole thing. A host of different people, far more qualified in space stuff than I could ever hope to be, have all told me it is an experience that I absolutely have to have. I’ve heard that you watch it, then 30 seconds later you hear and feel it. I can’t wait. What a fantastic opportunity!
With only two confirmed shuttle launches left, and a probable third next summer, time is running out to watch first-hand the culmination of years of human endeavour and research, blasting off into the skies. I feel immensely privileged that I’ll be seeing my first launch from the best viewing spot available, the 3.1 mile mark, by the press and the countdown clock. I absolutely cannot wait.
I’ll do my very best to record as much of the experience as I can – both on a personal and a professional level. I’m hoping to have some fabulous photos, interesting audio and timely tweets for you to follow.
