~ Four Years of NASA Tweetups & Socials ~

As I get ready for my first NASA Social as a participant selected for social media accreditation at NASA Dryden on January 25, it's the perfect time to look back on the history of these unparalleled NASA-sponsored outreach events.

The first gathering of some of @NASA’s twitter followers took place almost four years ago on January 21, 2009 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena , CA. It was the brain child of Veronica McGregor (@VeronicaMcG) and her colleagues at JPL, who saw an opportunity to foster more direct engagement with twitter users around the world. The gathering was initially called a NASA Tweetup.  150 of NASA’s twitter followers were invited to spend an evening touring JPL facilities, interacting with scientists, learning about space exploration and getting rare behind-the-scenes access to NASA projects. A huge success, the first Tweetup was soon followed by others, including the last seven space shuttle launches from Kennedy Space Center.  Participants at those Tweetups witnessed a shuttle launch from three miles away – as close as anyone can safely get to a launch.

NASA Tweetups changed to NASA Socials in 2012. While I will always have a special affinity for the #NASAtweetup hash tag, I do admit that #NASASocial is more efficient. This is twitter after all - every character counts! It is also more accessible to those unfamiliar with these NASA gatherings. If you are reading this, you have probably tried to explain a “NASA Tweetup” to someone who has never been on twitter and has only a vague idea of what NASA actually does. It’s a challenge, requiring explanation of what a tweet is, how social media connect people with similar interests, how online communities lead to real world connections, and related matters. That’s before you even get to NASA’s role in it. Now try doing it in German, like I did for an interview with a German newspaper in 2011: http://www.lotsinspace.blogspot.com/2012/12/what-do-sts-133-sts-135-twitter-and-bad.html

So NASA Tweetups have happily evolved into NASA Socials, and the momentum shows no signs of slowing down. I wonder what the next four years will bring?

I joined twitter in 2008, mostly as a way to connect with other ferret lovers. Now, a little over four years and almost 12,000 tweets later, I continue to use twitter and other social media primarily to stay in touch with and exchange space-related info and news with other #spacetweeps. This hash tag has been adopted by those of us on twitter – many, if not most of us alumni of NASA Tweetups and NASA Socials – who are hopelessly in love with space and all the potential that robotic and manned human spaceflight holds for our future.

I discovered NASA Tweetups in the summer of 2010 – on twitter, of course. I have been following @NASA since I started tweeting and noticed the NASA Tweetup announcement for the last launch of Space Shuttle Discovery STS-133, planned for early November 2010. I was amazed at the opportunity being offered: A chance to see a shuttle launch from three miles away and all I needed was a twitter account that followed NASA. I had that! I applied to the Tweetup, still somewhat incredulous at this marvelous opportunity. I told one other person, my friend Tallulah (@tallulah_kidd), who also applied. NASA received 3,000 applications for the STS-133 Tweetup, and selected 50 to attend. Tallulah was chosen, I was not.  There is much speculation among spacetweeps  how NASA selects tweetup/social attendees. There is a general agreement that the selection process is largely random.

I was thrilled that Tallulah got to go, even more so when I discovered that I could be part of the Tweetup activities – at NASA and after hours – by watching the live streams set up by Tweetup attendees, including Joel Glick’s (@joelglick) now infamous “hat cam” he wore inside Kennedy Space Center.  During one such live stream, I heard @craftlass perform her now famous song “Bake Sale for NASA”. If you have never listened to her passionate music advocating human space exploration, you can do so here: craftlass.com

Hearing @craftlass’s music, seeing Tallulah in the midst of dozens of people - most of whom had been strangers to each other the day before - celebrating together, getting excited about space, science and seeing a shuttle launch, all of that was transformational for me. It gave me an unprecedented outlet for my lifelong passion for space and the establishment of permanent human outposts off our planet. This blog is one of the results.

Now, a little over two years later, my spacetweep network numbers are in the hundreds and I have met dozens of them in person. There is something about us space geeks that lets us get together as total strangers and leave a short time later with lasting friendships. Maybe it’s the revenge of the geeks. Many of us remember childhoods when geekiness wasn’t exactly cool or popular ~ And just look at all the adventures we are having now!

I attended my first NASA Tweetup in June 2011 at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The highlight of the day was seeing Mars rover Curiosity from about 15 feet away: The visitor’s gallery in JPL’s clean room, where Curiosity was being prepared for shipment to Kennedy Space Center and her launch later that year.  A particular treat was signing a guest book so that the signatures could be digitized and stored on Curiosity.  Read more about my JPL Tweetup adventure here: http://www.lotsinspace.blogspot.com/2012/02/curiosity-meeting-mars-science.html

I did not get selected to attend the NASA Tweetup for the last space shuttle launch (Atlantis STS-135, July 2011) but joined the Space Park View Tweetup in Titusville, FL and traveled to Florida anyway.  There, I shared a house with other spacetweeps and was rewarded with an unforgettable launch experience. Read more about it here: http://www.lotsinspace.blogspot.com/2012/04/space-shuttle-atlantis-sts-135-final.html

Since then, I have been waitlisted, but not accepted, four times in a row for NASA launch Tweetups and Socials, starting with Curiosity's launch in November 2011 to the TDRS-K tracking satellite launch later this month. I was starting to think someone at NASA got a kick out of teasing me.

Then something  awesome happened, like it often does when NASA is involved: I was selected to receive social media accreditation for the next NASA Social at Dryden, Airborne Earth Sciences (#NASA_Airborne) on January 25, 2013.  This is a different type of NASA Social, where selection is not random and participants are chosen based on their social media posting history.  According to NASA:

What are NASA Social media credentials?
Social media credentials give users a chance to apply for the same access as journalists in an effort to align the access and experience of social media representatives with those of traditional media. People, who actively collect, report, analyze and disseminate news on social networking platforms are encouraged to apply for media credentials. Selection is not random. All social media accreditation applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Those chosen must prove through the registration process they meet specific engagement criteria.

Do I need to have a social media account to register?
Yes. This event is designed for people who:

• Actively use multiple social networking platforms and tools to disseminate information to a unique audience.
• Regularly produce new content that features multimedia elements.
• Have the potential to reach a large number of people using digital platforms.
• Reach a unique audience, separate and distinctive from traditional news media.
• Must have an established history of posting content on social media platforms.
• Have previous postings that are highly visible, respected and widely recognized.

I am honored that I was chosen as a social media representative for the Airborne Earth Sciences Social at NASA Dryden. I promise to bring exciting and up-to-the-minute coverage to my readers and followers!

There is a wiki page with details about all past and upcoming NASA Tweetups and Socials. Please note that participant lists may not be complete: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Tweetup
You can also join the wiki community here: http://www.nasatweet.com/

My Coverage of STS-135 in Westfalen-Blatt (Bad Oeynhausen, Germany)

Being a spacetweep is all about outreach and inspiration via social media. When a German twitter follower of mine learned that I was traveling to Florida to witness the last Space Shuttle launch on July 8, 2011, he pointed out that many local Germans don't even know or care about the end of the Space Shuttle program. I decided to contact both papers in my hometown of Bad Oeynhausen to see if they wanted to interview me while experiencing STS-135 in person. Did they ever! I was asked for and promised exclusive coverage to the first paper that responded, the Westfalen-Blatt. I figured if I can reach, inspire or educate just one person in Germany, it would be worth the effort. I anticipated publication with some degree of trepidation and was pleasantly surprised. The journalist who interviewed me, Malte Samtenschnieder, did a great job. I was especially happy to see her translation of my STS-135 launch tweet stream in my hometown newspaper.

If you read German, you can see for yourself (scroll down to PDFs). If you don't, here are the Cliff Notes:

The first PDF page is the transcript of the interview with me a few days before my trip to the Space Coast. It was published pre-launch on July 8, 2011 and the picture on the right is actually of the last launch of Discovery on February 24, 2011 (STS-133). The interview mainly covers how I became a space geek and how NASA's social media activism, especially on twitter, has created a growing global community of spacetweeps and citizen scientists that will help launch the coming era of space tourism, private space exploration and permanent human colonies in low-earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and other solar system destinations. 

I also give a shout-out to Sonja Rohde, who is slated to become the first German space tourist and the first German woman in space. She is from my home state of Nordrhein-Westfalen. There are also sidebars with my biographical info and about the STS-135 mission profile and crew members. The interview was featured on the Westfalen-Blatt's front page.

The second PDF page is a second article by the same journalist published post-launch in the Westfalen-Blatt's weekend edition of July 9/10, 2011. It is a translation into German of my live tweets on launch day. While historic space events tend to cause cell phone and network outages due to overload, I got lucky. All my launch-related tweets got through, without delay. I even composed my launch tweet "...5 ...4 ...3 ...2 ...1 and Lift-Off!" ahead of time, with my finger on the "Send" button and my eyes on the launch pad. (Have I noted recently that smart phones are cooler than tricorders?). 

If you don't read German but follow my twitter feed - or space events, for that matter - you don't need a translation of the second article. I should add that the translation is very good and accurately captures what I was trying to convey. Except for one quibble that only matters to those who read both German and English. I tweeted about how shuttle launch sound waves are something you feel *viscerally*, in addition to seeing and hearing them - a feeling you just don't experience unless you're physically close to a couple million tons of propellants being ignited. The translation of "visceral" ended up as "zu Herzen gehend" (heartfelt), which is an ok translation, but not really what I said in English. It's a tough one, though, so I'm giving the translator a pass :)

Most of all, these articles are symbolic of what space activism and outreach is all about for me: It is about communication, passion, creativity and hope, the transcendence of national borders and cultural differences, and a focus on building a better future for all humankind.

Click here to read about my launch day experience in English.

Revisiting STS-133 ~ Discovery's Last Mission ~

Among those who were invited to participate in the NASA Tweetup (now NASA Social) at Kennedy Space Center to watch Discovery's last launch, STS-133 is often referred to as "The longest tweetup". 

Discovery was originally scheduled to launch on Nov. 1, 2010. The launch was scrubbed at the last minute. Hope remained alive for about a week that Discovery would launch soon, but it was not to be. Several additional launch dates in early November were also scrubbed. In the end, Discovery had to be moved from the launch pad back into the hangar for additional work. 

Discovery STS-133 finally launched on February 24, 2011. Many of the tweetup attendees traveled to Florida twice in hopes of seeing the launch. After four months of anticipation and disappointments, experiencing the long-awaited last launch of Discovery was a sensory and emotional high that STS-133 tweetup attendees are still talking about today.

Among the STS-133 tweetup guests was fellow space geek and violinist @tallulah_kidd, who was so inspired by the magnificence of the launch that she spontaneously played her violin at Kennedy Space Center. Her music is pure improvisation after seeing Discovery off on its final mission. 

Enjoy.

At the Vehicle Assembly Building 

Serenading Robonaut

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Below is a special STS-133 bonus - 

William Shatner's wake-up call to Discovery's crew on orbit during the last mission: