NASA To Launch Event Tailored For Tweeting
NASA is working out plans to allow for an invitation-only opportunity to the Twittering media during a space shuttle launch in August.
The so-called TweetUp will bring together between 100 and 150 Twitterers and bloggers at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the launch of space shuttle Discovery.
Michael Cabbage, a NASA spokesman told Reuters the agency’s first TweetUp was planned to occur during the launch of space shuttle Endeavour next week, but there are still several details that have to be worked out.
NASA will be inviting all of the individuals and providing them with Internet facilities. They are also trying to determine whether or not to allow foreign Twitterers to join the event. According to Reuters, security plans put in place after the attacks of September 11, 2001, state that foreign nationals are not allowed unescorted access to the spaceport.
"If we don’t limit it to media outlets only, we would have a standing line for those coveted 150 slots that would stretch around the world," said NASA spokesman Bill Johnson.
"NASA is taking a leadership role in this," said George Whitesides, an Obama administration appointee at NASA.
"These things matter more than you might think," he added. "More people follow CNN on Twitter than those who watch CNN during prime-time hours."
Whitesides said the administration has made a point of engaging the public through social networking.
Astronaut Michael Massimino had more than 350,000 followers on micro-blogging site Twitter last month during NASA’s mission to supply upgrades to the Hubble Space Telescope.
Massimino tweeted by sending his messages to Mission Control in Houston via e-mail. NASA’s public affairs copied his messages and tweeted them to his followers.
Astronaut Mark Polansky (Astro_127), commander of the shuttle Endeavour crew, intends to also send Tweets from space during next month’s mission to the International Space Station.
"It serves as a good way to educate folks as to what’s going on in the program," Polansky said.
"I’ll be the first the admit that I didn’t know a tweet from a Twitter from a Facebook from a MySpace before I got into this, but as I’ve done it, I’ve learned that there’s a whole community of people that love this stuff and are following," said Polansky, who as of Monday had 14,614 followers.
"People just love to see on a daily basis what you’re doing and feel like they’re getting a real insider’s view of what’s going on," he said.
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