From Newsgroup: sci.space.news

April 26, 2011

Stephanie L. Schierholz 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-4997 
stephanie.schierholz{at}nasa.gov   


RELEASE: 11-124

NASA INVITES 150 LUCKY TWITTER FOLLOWERS TO ENDEAVOUR LAUNCH

WASHINGTON -- NASA invited 150 lucky people to a behind-the-scenes 
perspective from the press site at the agency's Kennedy Space Center 
in Florida for the final launch of space shuttle Endeavour on Friday, 
April 29. The launch is scheduled for 3:47 p.m. EDT. 

The participants were selected randomly from more than 4,100 online 
registrants during a 24-hour opportunity in mid-March. Attendees 
represent 43 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Australia, 
Brazil, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, 
Venezuela, and the U.K. Participants will share their experiences 
with their more than 3.7 million combined followers through the 
social networking site Twitter. On Sunday, the agency surpassed one 
million followers on its flagship Twitter account, {at}NASA. 

Beginning at noon on April 28, NASA will broadcast a portion of the 
Tweetup when participants get to talk with NASA's Chief Scientist 
Waleed Abdalati; Endeavour's Flow Director Dana M. Hutcherson; 
International Space Station Associate Program Scientist Tara Ruttley; 
astronaut Clay Anderson; and Principal Investigator of the Alpha 
Magnetic Spectrometer-2, Sam Ting. To watch the broadcast, visit: 

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasatelevision 

Participants also will tour Kennedy and get a spacesuit demonstration. 
The Tweetup culminates with the launch. 

Reporters who are credentialed to cover the launch also may cover the 
NASA Tweetup at Kennedy's press site. Reporters interested in 
interviewing Tweetup attendees in advance should contact Stephanie 
Schierholz at 202-358-1100 or stephanie.schierholz{at}nasa.gov. 

This is the fourth time NASA has invited its Twitter followers to 
experience a space shuttle launch. Previously, groups attended 
Atlantis' STS-129 and STS-132 missions and Discovery's STS-133 
launch. NASA also hosts Tweetup events at other NASA centers. 

Registration for an event June 6 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory 
in Pasadena, Calif., will open at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26, for 24 
hours at: 

http://www.nasa.gov/tweetup 

To follow the Tweetup participants on Twitter as they experience the 
prelaunch events and shuttle liftoff, follow the #NASATweetup hashtag 
and the list of attendees at: 

http://twitter.com/nasatweetup/sts-134-launch 

To connect with NASA on Twitter and other social networking sites, 
visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/connect 

For more information about space shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission, 
visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle   
	
-end-

--- Synchronet 3.14a-Win32 NewsLink 1.85
--- SBBSecho 2.11-Win32