Lisa Byrne

On Valentine’s Day I got to show Space some love as one of the lucky few to attend a Tweetup held at NASA HQ featuring Astronaut Ron Garan. There to represent a client of Pappas Group — Syfy Channel — I was in new territory and fascinated by the scene. From the buzz around the room it was evident NASA Tweetup invites are very much in demand. Of the 150 confirmed 147 were present and seated before takeoff — foreign in events (more so in DC).

@Astro_Ron shared light and humorous stories of his time in space while interacting continuously with the audience. He began with my favorite part — sharing what social media meant to him in Space:

Through social media [through Twitter, Facebook, Google + and other platforms that we have] you enable us to bring the public along on our missions — not just as spectators but as fellow crew members… On my particular mission I was up there for 5 1/2 months and it was really nice to be able to send out pictures and get feedback, because we were interacting back and forth and it was really neat… We don’t always get it right, I’ve been corrected on Twitter several times and it’s great!

The image is a screen shot from my “serious” or “seriously confused” space look caught on NASA TV. Check out the full video on YouTube.