Science! Space! And NASA Tweetups

With the spread of social media into the every lives of today’s young people – it’s no surprise that NASA is reaching out and spreading the word about their missions, research, and discoveries. The government agency has launched a wildly popular series of NASA Tweeups, wherein bloggers and social media influencers from across the nation meet up to learn more about that the agency is going and live-tweet the event to their followers.

A week and a half ago, I attended a tweetup held at NASA’s DC Headquarters. The keynote speaker was Astronaut Doug Wheelock – @Astro_Wheels – who not only live-tweeted from space, but was the first person to check in on Foursquare from the International Space Station. NASA’s partnership with Foursquare yielded a custom ‘space shuttle’ badge, while also cementing the federal agency’s place as a cutting edge and tech-savvy place to work and research. Most importantly, Doug Wheelock’s picture uploads and tweets helped get an entirely new generation of youth excited about math, science, space, and astronomy.

Bellow is a short video from the event featuring Astronaut Wheelock speaking about an unplanned walk to repair the International Space Station, as well as his social networking efforts while in space.

To learn more about the NASA public affairs and social media outreach, check out:

• @NASATweetup on Twitter
• Official announcement website
• NASA mobile apps for Android, Iphone, and Ipad