NASA has invited 150 of its followers on the social networking website Twitter 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.
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 United Kingdom. The launch is scheduled for 3.47 p.m. EDT on Friday.
Beginning at noon on Thursday, NASA will broadcast a portion of the so-called Tweetup when participants get to talk with NASA’s Chief Scientist Waleed Abdalati, Endeavour‘s Flow Director Dana M. Hutcherson, International Space Station (ISS) Associate Program Scientist Tara Ruttley, astronaut Clay Anderson, and Principal Investigator of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2, Sam Ting.
The participants will also tour the Kennedy Space Center and get a spacesuit demonstration by NASA, and participants will share their experiences with their more than 3.7 million combined followers through Twitter.
It 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.
STS-134 will be the final flight of Endeavour and the second-to-last flight for all space shuttles.
