NASA Tweetup-Part 6: 3-2-1..just kidding.

So I got home late the night before and before I went to sleep, I plugged all of my technologies in. I wanted to make sure I had full batteries for everything. I had a dream that I was late and missed the whole thing. It almost became a reality because I am an inept alarm clock setter, and I got lucky enough to be behind the only other (15 mph under the speed limit) person on the one lane part of Narcoosee Road at 4:45 in the morning.

When I pulled up, I saw a crowd had gathered around something. I walked up and there is Neil deGrasse Tyson with a laser pointer giving us a 6am astronomy lesson in the parking lot! It was fabulous! Shortly thereafter, we got on our bus and headed out to the causeway.

Once we got out there, I ended up with a group of about ten people at the far end of everyone else- but we had a full view of the rocket so we could see it clear the pad. In my opinion, that is the best part- watching it clear the pad. You can get a good view of it in the air anywhere- but seeing it clear the pad is the unique, awesome view being up close affords you. So we waited. We talked. Sang the "GO!" song up until the weather part- NO GO on weather! It was up and down- here is how it went.

GRAIL had two instantaneous launch windows. They were about an hour apart. If it wasn't ready to go at that second, it was a no go for launch because it HAD to be launched right then. See, usually launches have pretty big windows of time to fix any issues- like a person wandering into restricted areas, weather holds, etc. So they can basically reschedule the new launch time for sometime within that window. Not GRAIL- it had once chance and once chance only, twice each morning, precisely on the dot. So they scrubbed the first launch time that morning, and we waited for the second launch time. At this point, clouds started rolling in, and I predicted there was no WAY it was going to launch with clouds like that hanging out. I was right.

They scrubbed and we went back to KSC. They would try again tomorrow.

The cool thing was, we were each given a complimentary admission ticket to Kennedy Space Center, so many of us headed there after this because it was still really early.

I met up with some people and watched the "Hubble" IMAX movie in 3-D, which was SUPERB! Then I met up with some different people and went to the exhibit they had under the theater- had a lot of really cool space stuff in there, including a piece of the moon we were allowed to touch. Really neat to touch something that was once a part of the moon.

I will definitely say this, NASA goes all out when it comes to public education. They had some really neat people there, but I will get to that later, because I actually got to meet some of them at dinner the next night.

So that afternoon, Neil deGrasse Tyson was going to be speaking again at an informal q&a session. I definitely went. I got to ask him another question again, but I will be writing a separate post for that because I asked him a really neat question and got a really neat answer.

We then went and stood in line for Nichelle Nichols autograph. I was never a big Star Trek fan, I watched it when I was a kid, but never a junkie, but I have a friend who was, so I stood in line and got her to sign the back of my lanyard next to Neil deGrasse Tyson, and a GRAIL postcard for my friend.

The good thing about the launch being delayed is that it also delayed the end of the Tweetup. But sadly, about half of our people had to leave. I lucked out.

But, before some people left, it was Endless BBQ time---the LEGENDARY ENDLESS BBQ!! It really is legendary. It deserves it's own post as well. :)

Link to the NASA Tweetup Broadcast-Guest Speakers.

So if you missed the afternoon program on Ustream, here is the link. I can't watch it because I don't want to see myself on video or hear myself asking questions...I'm not a big fan of being behind a camera I am not controlling. Maybe eventually I will...:)

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-tweetup

That is all of the speakers that I mentioned in yesterday's blog post. Neil deGrasse Tyson is at the very end. (PART TWO!) Oh and now I remember I also asked Jim Adams a question about the Voyagers but I can't remember now. I love those little Voyagers :).

So just some highlights during NDT's talk- again, it is in part two,

7:43- That is MY water bottle! :)It is still sitting on my desk...I can't throw it away...
15:20-His whipped cream story- "Either the laws of physics are different in your coffee shop...."
19:20- "We define who and what we are as a culture..."
21:51- "And adult field trip.."
22:41-"We become jaded, forget what it is to ask questions..." (This is also where he thought I called humans pathetic..haha)

GRAIL NASA Tweetup, Part 5- The Guest Speakers!

I am just going to make a list. I don't know how else to do this without getting more off track than I know I will as it is. Follow me!? Just a few notes first. So somehow I ended up on camera practically the entire time. I had people texting me during the program watching on UStream telling me to wave, commenting on how excited I looked, telling me to give them shout-outs, telling me to wake up. I did not realize the cameras would be right in my face, I thought they would be taping from behind us, and the speakers would be up on the podium. No. For  the most part, they speakers stood about two feet in front of me, or paced back and forth in front of me. Wanna talk self conscious? Ha. Try being out in the Florida heat all day, with serious makeup meltdown, while all tired from taking an anti-nausea pill whose main warning is drowsiness. But I am a champ. And it was nice and cold in the room, so I was able to just kinda curl up inside my rain jacket while I sat there. 

So the speakers: 

1. Charles Bolden (NASA Administrator)

2. Nichelle Nichols (surprise!) (Played Lt. Uhura on Star Trek)

3. Jim Adams (NASA Deputy Director, Planetary Science)

4. Maria Zuber (GRAIL Principal Investigator)

5. Sami Asmar (GRAIL Deputy Project Scientist, JPL)

6. Doug Ellison (Eyes on the Solar System demonstration)

7. Sally Ride Science team (MoonKam presentation)

8. Vern Thorp (Manager, NASA Programs, ULA)

9. Stu Spath,(Chief Spacecraft Engineer, Lockheed Martin)

10. NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON!!! (Astrophysicist, Frederick P. Rose Director at the Hayden Planetarium- this guy was Pluto's demise! :) 

So Neil deGrasse Tyson. He is what I aspire to be. This man has passion, he is a fireball, he is enthusiastic, he is realistic, logical, no-nonsense, etc. He is an ambassador for science/math literacy. He also used my water bottle for his demonstration, and in response to something he was saying about humans, I responded under my breath "Apathetic" and he heard me but thought I said "Pathetic" and the entire room got a laugh out of it. Including him. :) 

Also, Charles Bolden called me smart. He asked the room if anyone knew when the next manned spaceflight and cargo spaceflight were going to happen, and of course because I am an avid follower of SpaceX, my hand shot up and I told him 2014 for manned and November for cargo. He pointed his finger at me and said, this girl is smart. So I retorted with, good, give me a job, to which everyone, including him, laughed. And I responded again with, "No, I am serious I need a job!!!" 

:) 

I got to interact with them a lot. Sami Asmar and I got into a little discussion about an equation he had on his powerpoint during a break. Not often you get to talk math with a project scientist from NASA! 

Also, I LOVED the presentations on the MoonKam and Eyes on the Solar System. Two really, really cool projects- I will have to get links. I will likely do a blog with links and explanations to a lot of really neat stuff. I learned SO much in a matter of a few hours. 

After everything was over, we did a group photo under the mock Soyuz. Lots of our speakers even got in the picture! After that, I got to meet Neil deGrasse Tyson, have a picture with him and I had him sign my lanyard. He was SO SO SO nice. Down to earth, loved hugs, was just so involved with us. He didn't act like he was above us, he just educated us. It was fantastic and he is SUCH an awesome story teller. When I walked away from him, I told him to remember this face, I will be working with him one day! :) a

Again, I am sure as I finish this blog, there are details that are going to come up that I forgot, there was so much packed into the day. Just remember, starting with seeing Endeavour to this point is the entire day. It was almost intellectual overload, I felt like I was walking in a dream. I mean, if you know me, you know I was in my element to the max. 

So that was the official first day, or unofficial second day of the Tweetup. I headed home and got there around 9pm. And I had to be up at 4am the next morning to be back out at NASA to get on the tour bus to go to the launch...

One more thing- here are a few of my favorite quotes from the day:

"Math is extremely import. In fact if you don't study algebra, you're not setting the right path in my mind-you're not setting the right path for yourself. Regardless of whether you go into science or math... if you end up being an artist or poet... it is important you have the ability to understand the world around you and analyze that." 

-Jim Adams

"It will change our understanding of who we are in the universe."

-Jim Adams (Speaking about the possibility of finding life on Europa)

"It (Atlas V) leaped off the pad with authority and pushed Juno on to Jupiter, but in all my career I've never seen a rocket launch so beautiful, so powerful, as a Delta II launch"..."Delta 2 is like a tall lady pushing her babies off into space"

-Jim Adams

"He has at least forced the public dialogue" 

-Charlie Bolden (Speaking about Barack Obama)

"Nothing is impossible. If you can imagine it, dream it, you can do it."

-Nichelle Nichols

NASA Tweetup- Part 4- The Rest of the Tour

So after we left the VAB, we stopped at the famous Countdown Clock which just outside of the parking lot. This is THE Countdown Clock- the one that is in all of the press photos, directly across- 3.5 miles- from launchpad 39A. This was the view of the final launches of Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour.

Everyone was rotating out for a picture with the clock. Here is the thing- the field was infested with sandspurs. If you are unaware of what these hideous things are- they are these tiny little spiked balls of dead plant material- and they attach to anything that touches them. They are SHARP and they are in clusters. I knelt down to take a pic for a friend, and when I stood up the back of my pants had them scattered from my waist, down to my tennis shoes. I had to have some buddies pick them off for me...last thing you want to do is have a seat with a cluster of those attached to your pants.

This was a quick stop. We then proceeded on to Launchpad 41, where Curiosity will launch out on an Atlas V in November. The pad was empty, and they had a speaker, but the problem was that I have no tolerance for heat. None. At all. I am a northerner at heart, always will be and my tolerance for standing out in the sun is about zero. I tried to hide in the shade of a Hummer with another buddy out there, but it was too much, I started to get that nauseous buzzy feeling I used to get when I would ride horses at high noon in the dead heat of July when I was a kid. I went back on the bus to sit in the air and missed most of the guys speech. It was either that or pass out. I probably would have been fine if I wasn't still battling the sudden mystery illness, but my body was already being mean to me, and I did NOT want to risk getting sicker and missing the AWESOME afternoon lineup they had planned for us.

We then traveled to pad 17 where the Delta stood. Unfortunately, rollback of the tower would not be until that night, so all we could see was the rocket boosters and about 3/4 of the body of the rocket. Again, we were in the sun, and again, I went to the shade to stand with some others, but I couldn't take it. I was SO nauseous, and so ill feeling, I got on the bus and took an anti-nausea pill to try to quell the nausea. It was that bad, I thought I was going to have to miss the speakers. (At this point I am pretty sure it was more to do with being sick than the sun. The sun was being tolerated by everyone else, so I think I was just really super sensitive because I felt like crap).

Anyway, I got pics of everything I talked about here, I still have to sort through all these photos and figure out what site is the easiest and most organized for uploading them onto. It was an amazing tour, despite being sick. Thank goodness we got to see Endeavour first though, turning the corner and seeing that shuttle right in front of me was by far one of the most priceless, irreplaceable moments of my life. I am sure that I will go back as I am looking through pictures and write new entries as details come back to me too. I just want to get the gist of everything down here first before I forget! There is so much more to talk about!

The next few entries will be about the guest speakers, launch day 1, endless bbq, the planetarium, launch day 2, goodbyes, and one last meetup to hangout with my new pal Justine from the UK before she headed back across the pond!

NASA Tweetup, Part 3- Endeavour

This deserves it's own entry. 

Now, those of you who know me, know that one thing I was so sad I never got while the shuttle was in service, was a really good picture of me with the shuttle in the background. I had been anticipating the tour since the day I found out I was selected and the main reason was that the VAB being a tour stop meant it was highly likely we would see the shuttle inside. At this time, all the shuttles are in the process of being decommissioned, therefore they have been rotating in and out, and I knew Endeavour was in there currently.


Stop 1: Vehicle Assembly Building 


First, a quick background on the Vehicle Assembly Building, a.k.a. VAB. It was originally built to assemble the Saturn V rocket. This means it is HUGE. According to it's Wikipedia page:

 "The VAB is 526 feet (160.3 m) tall, 716 feet (218.2 m) long and 518 feet (157.9 m) wide. It covers 8 acres (3 ha), and encloses 129,428,000 cubic feet (3,665,000 m³) of space."

Take a minute to digest that. Now, the tour guide on our bus told us that when we walked in to keep walking because everybody stops when they first walk in because they are so amazed by the size of it. So, we unload and my heart is pounding, and in we go. 

It is impossible to control the jaw drop when you first enter. This building is like a nerd cathedral. I felt like dropping to my knees and crying. I don't think there is any way to accurately describe this building- all I know is that when I looked up, I got dizzy. It was almost like the feeling you get when you are really high up, but in reverse.

So next, we got to walk through the building. It was almost haunting in a sense, it was so empty. Banners with well wishes to previous shuttle missions, a wall with the signatures of all the ex-employees, mission emblems, all adorned the "walls" as we walked through. Then we get to the end of the hallway and turn left, and there she is. 

Endeavour. 

First, a backstory. Endeavour and I were not the best of friends before this day. Last year she toyed with my emotions when I went out to see her launch at 4:30 in the morning, just to have her scrub around T-5 minutes. This year, I got to see her launch, but she went up into the clouds within seconds and disappeared, so I resigned to the fact that Endeavour just wasn't ever going to be as dear to me as Atlantis, or my absolute favorite, Discovery. But Endeavour definitely redeemed herself. 

Even sitting there all torn apart, she had this grace about her, she was so stoic. Kind of like an apprentice who had fulfilled the expectations of their teacher, and exceeded them as well. The baby of the fleet, sitting there in front of me, I felt like she was grinning at me, as if to tell me, "Hey, you didn't think I was really going to let you down, did you?". I was speechless. I even have it on video! There is no other way to be. How else can you feel when you are sitting in front of one of the most profound pieces of American history? To know that only a handful of people will ever get this kind of encounter with a shuttle, I felt so, so very honored. 

They gave us a half an hour in the VAB. It felt like 5 minutes. Soon, they were rounding us up to head back out to the bus. As I backed away from Endeavour, I blew her a kiss. I don't care what other people think of me, although, this group would be the last of anyone to judge my actions. Endeavour earned her special place in my memories.

I did get some pictures in front of her, I then snapped away with my DSLR, but unfortunately, I lost all of the pictures I took up until I was walking out of the VAB. I will say this, the room Endeavour sat in was tiny compared to the rest of the VAB. Think of a bathroom in a mansion. That was the scale. 

On the way out, they showed us the wall where the ex-shuttle workers had signed. So many signatures, so many jobs lost. My wish for these people, is that our fellow citizens stop and reflect on just how dedicated these people were to their jobs. I know many people think they could have easily walked knowing the end was coming, but these are specialists, and these shuttles are their babies. To walk out on them before their time was through would have been an injustice. Each and every one of us should hope for the same thing out of a career for ourselves, as it was and forever will be their passion. I will leave it at that, as my opinions are not what this is about. 

I will say though, my most sincere thanks to all of the workers, the crews and the shuttles Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavour, and of course to the lost crew and shuttles Columbia and Challenger. 

A dream of mine has been fulfilled, I could have been finished there and been satisfied with my NASA Tweetup experience. But they had way more in store for us...

NASA Tweetup- Part Two, Introductions

Day two has to be split into two, maybe even three blog posts. Between the tours and the guest speakers, there is so much to share. I am going to just talk about the first half of the day- the tours. Let the Tweetup begin! :)

I arrived at KSCVC around 8am. There were still people checking in and there was a crowd of attendees hanging out in front of the check in area. I found some people I knew and waited. They ushered us into the Debus center for introductions once everybody had checked in. Now we all had to take a turn standing up and introducing ourselves. We had to say our name, our twitter handle, and an interesting fact. I can talk up a storm, but in order to talk into a microphone, I have to be prepared- mainly because I can hear my voice and it always startles me. This was an incredibly diverse crowd. By the time it got to me, I just stood up (don't forget- over 150 people in the room) and this is basically what I said, "Hi, my name's Sherry Valare, my Twitter is @Catahouligan, I am a math and astronomy major. Oh and I own the dog." Of all the things I could say but hey, the good news is that I mentioned Pupples and the better news is that people knew what that meant.

Now, fast forward, introductions are over, and they announce it is time to head to the bus for the tours. We had four buses, I hopped on Bus 1 with some of my other buddies (and Bus 1 was definitely the cool bus, by the way). Moving right along...

The GRAIL NASA Tweetup-Part One

I am going to break this up into a few parts I will write over the next week or so. This event was so overwhelming, and I am still digesting everything. I met and conversed with a sampling of the greatest minds on this planet. I met Space Shuttle Endeavour. I sat at a BBQ and talked math and physics equations with my new buddies. I experienced things that most people will only ever get to experience via television or photograph. I played in a space-lovers candy shop paradise for a week and honestly it was one of the most gratifying experiences I will ever have. My mind is stretched by this, it can't be undone. NASA Tweetup, you rocked my WORLD! :) 

The first day of the Tweetup was credential pick up and the pre-event dinner  we all planned at Dixie Crossroads Restaurant. I woke up Tuesday morning really sick. I was nauseous and throwing up, and I honestly thought it was going to ruin the whole week for me. I felt horrible, but I went out to pick up my stuff anyway. When I got to the press building on SR 3, I checked in and was given my awesome Tweetup badge and my swag bag. All sorts of fun NASA and GRAIL logo adorned items, would make any fan super happy. At this point, it got real. It made it quite easy to ignore the fact I felt like falling over. 

The Press Accreditation Building

Next up on the agenda was dinner. Time to meet a ton of people. I had some time to kill, and it was unseasonably cool outside, so I headed over to Spaceview Park and took a little 20 minute snooze on a park bench on the water. When I opened my eyes the Vehicle Assembly Building was the first thing I saw. 

 

My NASA Tweetup Badge

I headed over to Dixie Crossroads, and dinner was fantastic. I met around 60 people in one sitting, and the energy in the room was exhilarating. The conversations you have when surrounded by a mass of people who share the same exact passion as you, are fantastic. On top   of that, you already "know" these people in theory, so it was just a super fun night. Just a note, Dixie Crossroads serves these corn fritter things- either eat one or prepare to ruin your diet. They are addictive! 

The night slowly came to a close, I felt like I had at least introduced myself to everyone there, and it was time to head home and get some sleep. The next morning we had to be at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex by 8:30am for day one of our actual NASA sponsored activities. 

In hindsight, unless you are a veteran of these things, there was absolutely nothing that could have fully made me comprehend the things I was about to see and the people I was about to meet over the days that were to follow. 

My "Endeavour".

There is SO MUCH to tell about this week. To summarize, amazing sights, amazing conversation, but mainly AMAZING PEOPLE! Well...and this...

Yep. That is ME with ENDEAVOUR!!!! I am standing just a few yards from a space shuttle. It rendered me speechless if you can believe it.

Poster Project

A little shout out from a once in a lifetime location never hurt anybody. :) Look in the lower right hand corner of that poster. (Thanks again "Rocketman" for your thoughtfulness!) Details on this to come later, but my mission is clear! You will see people, you will see! 

(And YES that is the REAL ATLANTIS and there is a signature on that belongs to ME!)

"NASA Invites 150 Twitter Followers to Lunar Launch "

Media Release of our event from NASA:

News release: 2011-276                                                                     Sept. 1, 2011

NASA Invites 150 Twitter Followers to Lunar Launch 

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at: 
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-276&cid=release_2011-276

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA has invited 150 followers of the agency's Twitter accounts to a two-day launch Tweetup Sept. 7-8. The Tweetup is expected to culminate in the launch of the twin moon-bound GRAIL spacecraft aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The launch is targeted for 5:37 a.m. PDT (8:37 a.m. EDT) on Sept. 8. The two GRAIL spacecraft will fly in tandem orbits around the moon for several months to measure its gravity field in unprecedented detail from crust to core. The mission also will answer longstanding questions about the moon and provide scientists with a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed.

Tweetup participants were selected from more than 800 people who registered online. They will share their Tweetup experiences with their followers through the social networking site Twitter.

Participants represent the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Indonesia, Spain and the United Kingdom. Attendees from the U.S. come from 32 states: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

Beginning at noon PDT (3 p.m. EDT) on Wednesday, Sept. 7, NASA will broadcast a portion of the Tweetup when attendees talk with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden; Jim Adams, deputy director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters in Washington; Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge; Sami Asmar, GRAIL deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.; and Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and Frederick P. Rose Director at the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium in New York. To watch the broadcast, visit:http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-tweetup . The event will also be streamed live, with a moderated chat, at http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 .

Participants also will tour NASA's Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral, including a close-up visit to the launch pad.

Reporters interested in interviewing Tweetup attendees should contact Stephanie Schierholz at 202-358-1100 or stephanie.schierholz@xxxxxxxx. Reporters interested in covering the afternoon program Sept. 7 at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex must secure access through Andrea Farmer by 2 p.m. PDT (5 p.m. EDT) Sept. 6 at 321-449-4318 or afarmer@xxxxxxxxxx.

Previously, NASA invited groups to attend the launch of the Juno spacecraft on its way to Jupiter and five space shuttle launches: Atlantis' STS-129, STS-132 and STS-135 missions, Discovery's STS-133 mission and Endeavour's STS-134 mission.

To follow participants on Twitter as they experience the prelaunch events and GRAIL's liftoff, follow the #NASATweetup hashtag and the list of attendees at: http://twitter.com/nasatweetup/grail-launch

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the GRAIL mission. For more information about GRAIL, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/grail or http://grail.nasa.gov .

To connect with NASA on Twitter and other social networking sites, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/connect .

Veronica McGregor 818-354-9452
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
veronica.c.mcgregor@xxxxxxxxxxxx

Stephanie L. Schierholz 202-358-4997
Headquarters, Washington
stephanie.schierholz@xxxxxxxx

!!!!!!! :) !!!!!!!!

We got our itineraries today!! Hurry, give me some synonyms for excited!!

First things first...I really like that the final item on the "prohibited items" list is "PETS". I wasn't seriously going to bring Pupples... :) But good thing this was mentioned, because it seals the deal for sure now ;)

The first half of Wednesday, we will be touring Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This includes stops at the VAB (guess what amazing beast is sleeping in there?!), SLC-17 and LC-41, and the Countdown Clock. SLC-17 is #GRAIL is launching from and LC-41 is where the Mars Science Laboratory will launch from soon. So we are basically going to be up close to something that will orbit the Moon and another something that will orbit Mars. It's unreal.

Following this dream tour, we will be going back to KSCVC for lunch and then a mega superb lineup of guest speakers/presentations including the following:

-Jim Adams (@NASAJim), deputy director, Planetary Division, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, introduces Administrator Charles Bolden

–MoonKAM (@GRAIL_MoonKAM) presentation from the Sally Ride Science (@SallyRideSci) team

– Sami Asmar, GRAIL deputy project scientist, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

– Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigator, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

-Eyes on the Solar System (@NASA_Eyes) demo with Doug Ellison (@Doug_Ellison), JPL Visualization Producer 

– Vern Thorp, manager, NASA Programs, ULA (@ULAlaunch)

. – Stu Spath, chief spacecraft engineer, Lockheed Martin (@LockheedMartin) 

And my personal favorite: 
– Neil deGrasse Tyson (@NeilTyson), Frederick P. Rose director at the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History (@AMNH)

Then Thursday morning, we have to be at KSCVC at 6am to board the bus to take us out to the NASA Causeway which is where we will view the launch from. It is between 3.5 and 4 miles away from the launch pad. That is an amazing view. 

I think I am out of words. I can't even process all of this. I can't believe I am part of this. 
**********************************************************************************
I will be all over Twitter (since that is kinda the point after all) on September 6th, 7th, and 8th. Follow me- @Catahouligan. 


If you do not have a Twitter account, click in this little link:
http://www.twitter.com/catahouligan 


Also: 
Beginning at 3 p.m. on Sept. 7, NASA will broadcast the Tweetup program on http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-tweetup. Portions of the Tweetup may be broadcast on NASA Television, online at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.