Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Tweetup On Tap!

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I hear the STS-129 Tweetup at Cape Canaveral was an entertaining affair, so I'm overjoyed to be attending the STS-130 Tweetup in Houston on February 17th!

I'm rather a mediocre member of the Twitterati, at best. I admit, I entirely forget my twitter account for days at a time – partly because I’m more attracted to detailed, verbose venues like blogs or facebook... and partly because I view hand-held electronic devices as if they were coated with ebola.

Perhaps this will serve as motivation to be a more dedicated twit.

NASA STS-130 Tweetup
We'll be gathering on the 10th day of the mission, whereby Shuttle Endeavour will have been docked for about a week. At this juncture, astronauts Nicholas Patrick and Robert Behnken will have already conducted two spacewalks to install the new Tranquility node.

If all goes according to the mission plan, we'll be tweeting live from Johnson Space Center around the time they are outfitting the seven-windowed panoramic Cupola.

To review the entire Mission Timeline, see the STS-130 Press Kit at NASA.gov.

The schedule is pretty packed, and I’m especially excited to see Astronaut Robert Satcher on the speaking docket! Bobby S. was the first orthopedic surgeon in space, just this past November on STS-129... so he's fresh off a mission and probably quite keen to give presentations about his first trip into space.

NASA Astronauts on the International Space Station
STS-129 Mission Specialists Bobby Satcher,
Nicole Stott and Leland Melvin on the ISS

On Earth, the "Zero-G M.D." (catchy, huh?) has a background in Musculo-skeletal specialties; he is also now becoming involved in micro-gravity studies, and one of his own latest tweets shows the vertical treadmill used in one of the many NASA research studies.

Does anyone have any questions they would like me to ask? Other astronauts and officials are slated to appear. Send some ideas and join my Pillownaut twitter feed to see the results! I'll also, of course, report on events and share photographs after I return home on the 18th...