I feel like I’ve won the lottery… in SPACE.

NASA held a very special Twitter-based contest– The first 100 followers of @NASA who registered on their web site would be invited to an official NASA Tweetup. By some fluke of luck, I made it in! My boyfriend Corey was one of the 50 waitlisted, but he shortly made it to the official 100 list too after some participants declined.

What does this tweetup involve? It’s a two day event hosted by NASA at Kennedy Space Center, culminating with the lunch of space shuttle mission STS-126. We’ll tour the facilities as well as have an opportunity to meet with astronauts, engineers, and other NASA staff.

From the official NASA Tweetup site:

“The two-day event will provide NASA Twitter followers with the opportunity to take a tour of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, view the space shuttle launch and speak with shuttle technicians, engineers, astronauts and managers. The Tweetup will include a “meet and greet” session to allow participants to mingle with fellow Tweeps and the staff behind the tweets on @NASA.

Space shuttle Atlantis is targeted to launch at 2:28 p.m. EST on Nov. 16 on its STS-129 mission to the International Space Station. “

As many of you know, NASA has always had a moon-shaped place in my heart: My grandfather (Humberto Martinez) was an engineer for NASA during the space race– in fact, he was the first Cuban to work for NASA. He worked there during the Gemini and Apollo missions, including working on the Saturn V rocket that took Apollo 11 from the earth to the moon. I have a ton of NASA memorabilia and photos from that time in history that I hope to scan and digital archive online soon.

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In preparation for the event, Corey and I have been watching the fantastic miniseries, From the Earth to the Moon as well as Apollo 13. FTETHM is probably my absolute favorite miniseries ever, so it’s been great rewatching the series from the beginning again. In less than two weeks– Cape Canaveral or bust.