Day 2 of the NASA tweetup for Endeavour's launch

All the tweeps gathered to wave to the astronauts en route to the launch pad.

My table mates at the tweetup -- Julie Deily, a local resident who goes by @TheLittleKitchn on Twitter, and Michael Moore of Washington state, who is @MichaelBMoore -- watch the "Astrovan" as it turns into the parking lot of the Vehicle Assembly Building.

The tweeps wave at the helicopter after it turned around and followed the Astrovan away from the launch pad. The Astrovan had never before done such a thing. And the tweeps soon learned that the launch had been scrubbed.

The second day of the NASA "tweetup" was largely uneventful.

That's mainly because the day's main attraction, the launch of space shuttle Endeavour, didn't happen. A faulty electrical component caused a scrub. The tweeps saw the "Astrovan," which was in the process of carrying the crew to the launch pad, turn around in front of their eyes.

Instead, the day was culminated with a visit by President Barack Obama, who had planned to attend the launch. From his limo, Obama waved to the tweeps as he rode in front of the VAB. That was the extent of the day's thrills.

NASA invited the tweeps back for future launch attempts. Whether many people will be willing to make the trek to Florida again, however, is yet to be seen.

I'll be there, though.

Shuttles and space stations made of LEGOs were popular among the tweeps, as a designer from LEGO made a presentation. A lot of these tweeps are nerds. So I really fit in.

Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California showed off a piece of aereogel, the world's lightest solid colloquially known as "frozen smoke."

The porous material, which sounds like a piece of metal when it's dropped onto a hard surface, is used in space to collect dust particles.

The president's helicopter escorts made their way to Kennedy Space Center.

A bunch of journalists gathered to watch the president's arrival from the top of the KSC blockhouse used by my employer.

Some space center employees filed into the parking lot to watch the fleet of helicopters in the president's party.

One of the choppers that might have contained the president.

Atlas V rocket launch from the 'nude' beach

About 4 miles from the launch pad, I watched this Atlas V rocket lift off Saturday, May 7, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

I drove about 45 minutes to Canaveral National Seashore, a park that's popular among nudists. They have to break the law to be nude on this beach, though, so it's not a commonplace thing. Everyone was fully clothed when I was there.

Once I got to the beach, it was about 15 minutes before the 2:10 p.m. launch. In order to get as close as possible to launch pad 41, you have to walk about a mile southward to a fence that prevents people from entering the air station. Because the launch was near, I had to run that mile -- camera equipment in tow. Got there with several minutes to spare.

This rocket carried a $1.2 billion Space-Based Infrared System spacecraft, which will detect incoming missiles, into orbit.

This Atlas V flew without solid rocket boosters, so there was no immediate smoke trail. But this contrail did form once the rocket reached the high atmosphere, where cold air caused condensation.

Tweeting with the tweeps on Twitter at the NASA tweetup

In this panorama, a shelf cloud from a severe thunderstorm moved over the Vehicle Assembly Building, delaying the retraction of shuttle Endeavour's rotating service structure. See full version here.

Celebrity "tweep" Seth Green watched astronaut Clay Anderson.

On April 28 and 29, I had the privilege of representing my employer, the Florida Today newspaper, at NASA's "tweetup" of a space shuttle Endeavour launch attempt.

The fourth such event was an accumulation of 150 Twitter users who were randomly selected from thousands of applicants. They came from 43 states, the District of Columbia and six foreign lands.

You can find my tweets at @spaceteam. My personal Twitter handle is @offlede.

It was a chance for ordinary fans of NASA to get a behind-the-scenes perspective of Kennedy Space Center. At their base at the historic Launch Complex 39 press site -- three miles from the launch pad -- the "tweeps" listened to astronauts and scientists talk about their jobs and the upcoming STS-134 mission. We were taken on a tour of KSC, which included stops at the Shuttle Landing Facility, the Vehicle Assembly Building and the Saturn V Center -- all free of charge, of course.

We had been schedule to watch the rotating service structure be retracted, revealing the shuttle on the night before the launch. But a thunderstorm delayed that launch milestone, making it too late in the evening for the tweeps to watch.

Some celebrities -- such as actors LeVar Burton of "Star Trek," Seth Green of "Austin Powers" and an actor known by many as simply "Jerry the Desk Guy from 'ER'" -- were special invitees of NASA. They mingled with the ordinary tweeps and posted similar updates to their personal Twitter feeds.

Here are some photos from Day 1, before the two-day event was supposed to be culminated with Endeavour's launch.

Astronaut Clay Anderson surrounded by Twitter-equipped electronics.

The tweetup tent at the press site was air-conditioned.

Johnson Space Center experts showed off a spacesuit, or an extravehicular mobility unit, or EMU.

Celebrity tweep LeVar Burton of "Star Trek" and "Reading Rainbow" fame.

Local tweep Julie Deily signs her own autograph for actor Seth Green of "Austin Powers" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

A 400-acre brush fire burned three miles from the launch pad, but there was no danger, just lingering smoke.

We took a tour of KSC and saw a fleet of T-38 training aircraft at the Shuttle Landing Facility.

Sun bounced off the Vehicle Assembly Building, the next stop on the tweeps' tour.

Through a VAB door, tweeps looked at a mobile launcher platform.

Inside the VAB.

Tweeps marveled at the VAB's innards.

At top is a crane used to move the shuttle.

Storm clouds started to build as the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean seabreezes collided ahead of a cold front moving over Central Florida.

Captured a little lightning in the distance.


The shelf cloud began to move over the space center late in the afternoon.

It was one of the most colorful such clouds I'd seen.

Talk about a dark cloud over NASA.

There were a few lightning "crawlers," one of which is seen here above the launch pad and the countdown clock.

The VAB around sunset. Another storm would come later, further delaying launch operations.

Some mammatus clouds above the historic flagpole. The weather-induced delays prevented the tweeps from making a trip to the launch pad and seeing the shuttle bathed in beams of spotlights.

And here are some pics from my iPhone, which made it easier to post immediately to Twitter:

The one day this sign is actually grammatically incorrect. Grr.


All my various credentials.


The "mate-demate device," which workers use to get a shuttle off the 747 that sometimes carries it from California.


An external tank and a pair of solid rocket boosters were being prepared in the VAB for space shuttle Atlantis' final mission this summer.


The tweeps in the VAB.


Seth Green's girlfriend took a picture of the actor and our tour guide.


A section of an SRB.


The "ER" actor, Abe Benrubi, stood next to a warning sign at the VAB.


The shuttle's crawler transporter.


A packed Saturn V Center.

My big camera snapping pics of lightning.

New photographic tool

Shiny, eh?

It'll be good for chasing clouds.

I finally traded in my first car.

It was a 2000 Chevrolet Prizm pushing 110,000 miles, and I bought it when it was 3. It gave me seven solid years, but I wasn't interested in paying for more expensive repairs, like $1,200 for a new air conditioner.

This is its replacement.

My 2011 Ford Escape will come in handy when I'm driving in inclement weather conditions to photograph clouds or naturally occurring electricity, or to see my pretty girlfriend.

Why Ford? Because it's the best American vehicle, and the company didn't accept bailout money.

This really doesn't have anything to do with what I typically blog about. I just wanted to brag.