NASA Invites 150 Twitter Followers to Lunar Launch

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 PHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

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

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

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@nasa.gov. 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@dncinc.com.

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 .

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