Aug 1, 2011

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

Veronica McGregor Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif 818-354-9452 veronica c mcgregor@jpl nasa gov
RELEASE: 11-255

NASA INVITES 150 LUCKY TWITTER FOLLOWERS TO LAUNCH OF JUPITER-BOUND SPACECRAFT

WASHINGTON -- NASA has invited 150 followers of the agency's Twitter account to a two-day launch Tweetup Aug 4-5 The event is expected to culminate in the lift off of the Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft aboard an Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida

The launch window opens at 11:34 a m EDT on Friday, Aug 5 The spacecraft is expected to arrive at Jupiter in 2016 to investigate the gas giant's interior, atmosphere and aurora Juno's color camera will provide close-up images of Jupiter, including the first detailed glimpse of the planet's poles

Attendees represent 28 states, the District of Columbia and five other countries: Canada, Finland, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom NASA randomly selected the participants from more than 1,200 online applicants

Tweetup participants are coming from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Washington They will share their Tweetup experiences with their followers through the social networking site Twitter

Beginning at 10:30 a m on Thursday, Aug 4, NASA will broadcast a portion of the Tweetup when participants get to talk with Waleed Abdalati, chief scientist at NASA Headquarters; Jim Adams, deputy director, Planetary Science, NASA Headquarters; Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator; Steve Levin, Juno project scientist; Juno Science Team members Toby Owen, Fran Bagenal, and Dave Stevenson; Steve Matousek, Juno proposal manager; Jan Chodas, Juno project manager; and Chris Brosious, chief systems engineer for Juno at Lockheed Martin To watch the broadcast, visit:

http://www ustream tv/channel/nasatelevision

Participants also will tour NASA's Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral, including a close-up visit to the launch pad

Reporters credentialed to cover the launch also may cover the NASA Tweetup at Kennedy's press site Reporters interested in interviewing Tweetup attendees in advance should contact Stephanie Schierholz at 202-358-1100 or stephanie schierholz@nasa gov

This is the first time NASA has invited Twitter followers to experience the launch of a planetary spacecraft Previously, NASA invited groups to attend 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 the Tweetup participants on Twitter as they experience the prelaunch events and Juno's liftoff, follow the #NASATweetup hashtag and the list of attendees at:

http://twitter com/nasatweetup/juno-launch

You can follow the Juno mission on Twitter at:

http://www twitter com/NASAJuno

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif , manages the mission For more information about Juno, visit:

http://www nasa gov/juno

To connect with NASA on Twitter and other social networking sites, visit:

http://www nasa gov/connect

-end-

To subscribe to the list, send a message to: hqnews-subscribe@mediaservices nasa gov To remove your address from the list, send a message to: hqnews-unsubscribe@mediaservices nasa gov

The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription:

You are subscribed to the following list: [list_name]

using the following email: example@example.com

You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL:

https://aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/u/NASA_REPORTS/example/example com/

If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism

You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen:

<[program_url]/list/[list]>

If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at:

<mailto:[list_owner_email]>

The following physical address is associated with this mailing list:

[physical_address]