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NASA Day 2 {scrubbed!}

Day 2 at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center was no short of fun. The experience was just as AMAZING as Day 1.

Below was the planned agenda of the day:

Friday, April 29/ Launch: Tweetup Day 2

9:00 a.m. – Group picture beside the countdown clock

9:05 a.m. – Astronaut Ricky Arnold, STS-119 Discovery (March 15-28, 2009)

9:30 a.m. – Astronaut Leland Melvin, associate administrator for Education, NASA Headquarters, @Astro_Flow

10:00 a.m. – Daire McCabe, designer at LEGO

10:30 a.m. – Lt. Col. Patrick Barrett, 45th Weather Squadron, U.S. Air Force ~11:57 a.m. – Astronauts depart their crew quarters for Launch Pad 39A ~12:10 p.m. – Tweetup participants (assembled along the road across from the Launch Control Center) wave to the crew as they drive by in the astrovan on their way to the launch pad …..

Alas, the launch was scrubbed and NASA just announced May 16th would be Endeavour’s next launch date. I am re-invited to attend and hopefully watch Endeavour soar into space 🙂

Day 2

Begun with a group photo at the count-down clock, but I missed it! Got in late from Orlando, blamed it on the traffic!!!

Astronaut Leland Melvin, @Astro_Flow, an inspirational story-teller 🙂

Astronaut Melvin talked about how we shouldn’t give up our dreams. In his case, becoming an astronaut.

Q&A from the ground

Left: Not my camera, neither the Apple Macbook 😛

Interview and photos taken with Astronauts at the time piece

Our Twent (Tweet tent) was facing the count-down clock. Feeling EPIC!

View of Press Site

Legendary Star Trek actor, Levar Burton interviewing @Astro_Flow

It was a chilly and windy morning. We were all pumped with excitement for the launch!

Me with Astronaunt Ricky Arnold!

In the midst of all the excitements, I managed to squeeze in a photo and short conversation with fellow Astronaut Arnold. As soon as he was made aware I am representing the people of Malaysia, he greeted me in our native language!

“Selamat Datang” & “Selamat Pagi” 🙂

– it means, “Welcome” & “Good Morning”! I was on top of the world. He told me he was based in Indonesia for a short period and visited Malaysia a couple of times. The world is seriously small, hats of to people like him who are making a difference in our lives.

I shared table with actors Seth Green & Clare Grant 🙂

TweetUp participants line up to wave at Astronauts

TweetUp participants lined up to wave at Astronauts in the Astrovan..

Best thing about TweetUp's is making new friends 🙂

The Astrovan came and made a detour! We instantaneously knew something was not right and quickly realized the launch was SCRUBBED!!!

Shuttle launch scrubbed!

Alas, it was a beautiful day spent with wonderful new friends. Of course some of use stayed put for a while to catch a glimpse of President Obama and to wait out the horrendous traffic.

Momento for NASA with TweetUp participant signatures. A thank you 🙂

She was proposed to by her guy in front of the famous count-down clock! How cool is that?!?

These two love birds got engaged in front of the count-down clock. Sweet couple 🙂

Official Press Room

In order to kill some time, I ventured into the Press Room.

ISS display at Media Room

Was glad to discover miniature ISS and space suit was displayed on floor.

ISS display with a view of docked shuttle

There are 3 layers of gloves. But I only tried on the last 2.

Me, trying on an astronaut's 2nd layer glove

How ginormous did those gloves looked on me?!?!

3rd and final glove layer

Wow! What an amazing journey it was during Nasatweetup! I got home, and immediately tattooed NASA logo on my arm. Isn’t that cool? Don’t scream mom, it’s just a sticker 😉

I can’t wait to return to the Press Site next Monday, May 16th for Shuttle Endeavour’s launch reattempt @ 8:56am EDT! Join me on my journey via Twitter and Facebook 🙂

{ 16 comments }

1 Reema May 10, 2011 at 3:25 PM

wow!! such a great opportunity and experience!!

2 Kiran May 25, 2011 at 7:26 PM

Reema,
Indeed it was. You can read about the “lift-off” in my latest post 🙂

3 dinu May 10, 2011 at 6:23 PM

looks awesome !!!
dinu recently posted..How To Activate “Enterprise Enrollment” on Chrome OS

4 Kiran May 25, 2011 at 7:27 PM

Dinu,
And it was awesome!!!

5 Destination Infinity May 10, 2011 at 10:06 PM

The picture of you on the astronaut’s helmet is an awesome idea!

Destination Infinity
Destination Infinity recently posted..Vivekananda House Vivekanandar Illam Museum in Chennai

6 Kiran May 25, 2011 at 7:28 PM

DI,
Thanks a lot. My imagination occasionally churns out new ideas 🙂

7 Indian Homemaker May 11, 2011 at 12:36 AM

Wow some experience!! Loved the NASA tattoo and the photograph in the gleaming helmet the best 🙂

8 Kiran May 25, 2011 at 7:31 PM

IHM,
Thanks a lot! And that tattoo is temporary, but the awesomeness of overall experience is permanent 🙂

9 Indian Homemaker May 11, 2011 at 12:37 AM

And people manage to find interesting places to propose – if not under the stars and the moon, then maybe atleast in related spaces 🙂
Indian Homemaker recently posted..Indian brides told to reduce mobile phone use

10 Kiran May 25, 2011 at 7:32 PM

IHM,
I thought that was so sweet and romantic. Best part, the couple are both space enthusiasts. Very rare 🙂

11 Devendra May 11, 2011 at 2:13 PM

I wish I was there to enjoy n experience such fantastic n learning event! Thanks for posting snaps Kiran! Nice clicks really!!

12 Kiran May 25, 2011 at 7:34 PM

Devendra,
Thanks a lot. I wish more of my readers were able to attend. I am so grateful that I blog and somehow able to bring my audience with me (virtually) 🙂

13 carolinaheartstrings May 12, 2011 at 11:11 AM

Oh what fun. I loved that about living in Florida. You could go and be a part of that and I especially loved night launches. You could see them all the way down in Naples.
carolinaheartstrings recently posted..COOKBOOKS THROUGH THE AGES

14 Kiran May 25, 2011 at 7:37 PM

CHS,
I love living in Florida too. But a tad sad that manned space would be scrubbed. So much more to learn and explore, yet we allow bureaucracy to dictate and make wrong decisions all the time.

15 Appu May 26, 2011 at 12:59 PM

Yes, I agree. Amazing journey. I was on tour. Thanks to you.

16 Kiran June 2, 2011 at 11:39 AM

Appu,
Glad your journey went amazingly well 🙂