Houston, we have a problem

…literally. Endeavour’s journey has been postponed till May 10th. Mission STS-134 for April 29th was scrubbed. Launching human into space is no joke. Precautionary steps are put in place to safeguard lives and that is why space enthusiast like myself should expect launch delays. Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?

First up, the feeling of being selected to attend Nasa’s TweetUp was nothing short of AMAZING! I had to take a few days to process it all. The NASA family was amazingly gracious, hosting 150 selected tweeps from around the world to celebrate space exploration and the launch of Endeavour’s final voyage. Nasa TweetUp participants came from different parts of the world: District of Columbia, 43 States of U.S.A, Australia, Canada, Germany, San Juan, Switzerland, UK and me from MALAYSIA 🙂 I love social media gathering as such that connects people with similar enthusiasm from around the world.

NASA not only hosts us, but arranged an array of programs for us to fully experience what space ingenuity is all about:

Thursday, April 28/L-1: Tweetup Day 1*

7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. – Registration at the Kennedy Space Center Press Accreditation Badging Building; travel to the press site, set up, meet fellow participants

10:00 a.m. – Welcome by @NASA team members Stephanie Schierholz and John Yembrick

10:07 a.m. – Meet the tweeps

10:45 a.m. – Demo of Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) and Mark III spacesuits

11:00 a.m. – Lunch break

12:00 p.m.-1:40 p.m. — NASA TV starts for the formal #NASATweetup program, featuring:

• Dana M. Hutcherson, space shuttle Endeavour’s flow director, Kennedy Space Center
• Tara Ruttley, International Space Station associate program scientist, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, @ISS_research
• Astronaut Clay Anderson, @Astro_Clay, Expedition 15 flight engineer, STS-131 mission specialist, shuttle Discovery (April 5-20, 2010)

1:45 p.m. – Board tour buses

2:00 p.m. – Tour of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, including visits to the Apollo Saturn V Center, a drive by the Shuttle Landing Facility, Mate-Demate Device, Orbiter Processing Facility, Vehicle Assembly Building and Mobile Launcher Platforms, and viewing of the retraction of the Rotating Service Structure, scheduled for 7 p.m.

8:15 p.m. – Return to the press site

Pictures speaks thousand words, so without further ado, I present you my journey into NASA with tonnes of photos. Considered warned:

Day 1

NASA event organizer, Beth Beck 🙂

Massive tent occupied by 150 space enthusiasts/tweeps

My social media buddy, Barbara Nixon

Demo of Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) and Mark III spacesuits

Rocking in a space suit 😉

This space suit was assembled in our Twent! (TweetUp tent). How cool is that?

Me with Astronaut Clay Anderson, @Astro_Clay!

Legendary Star Trek actor, Levar Burton

We boarded the bus for a personal tour into Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB)!

Trey Ratcliff posing with VAB in the background

VAB is now used for housing Space Shuttle external fuel tanks and flight hardware, and is the location of space shuttle orbiter mating (stacking) with the solid rocket boosters and external fuel tank, that combined makes up the complete Space Transportation System, called the Space Shuttle for short – via Wikipedia.

VAB is seriously massive!

Fun fact: VAB is the largest single-story building in the world!

VAB is massive, don't let these photos fool you 😉

That sweet lady behind me had a live-webcam on her hat! How cool is that 😉

Shuttle mate-demate facility

Apollo 11 launch control mock-up

Apollo Saturn V Exhibits:

Made awesome new friends:

Trey holding salmonella sample for space research. Eww!

NASA's official press room and these were all of us Tweeps!

We were unable to view the retraction/rollback of the Rotating Service Structure due to bad weather and had to reassemble in Press Room. I felt a journalist vibe in there 😀

The iconic countdown clock - one of the most-watched timepieces in the world

It was an honor to be selected and receiving such dignified access into Nasa’s facility. Hats off to the Nasa team for pulling off such event with fun agenda to accommodate some of your space enthusiasts from around the world. More fun and adventurous details on Day 2, stay tuned 🙂

psst: Some photos were taken with my iPhone – please excuse the grainy image quality.

Have you been to a tweet-up of such magnitude? What are your thoughts on Obama’s decision in ending space shuttle programs?