Author Archives: rennawarren

About rennawarren

I've won a spot for the STS-135 NASA Tweetup. I'm going to try to document the experience.

Lighten up, Frances

Posted on July 26, 2011

As of yesterday, I posted my last set of pictures from the Houston tweetup and announced the latest tweetup registration. Since this blog was originally only meant to document my trip to the final launch, and has now lasted past the landing … Continue reading →

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You Can Do It Too.

Posted on July 25, 2011

I’ve always liked space, but my life kinda changed on June 10th when I got the notice I’d won the STS-135 Tweetup, only to be followed by winning a spot on the STS-135 Mission Tweetup. If you have been the … Continue reading →

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Mock ups

Posted on July 25, 2011

Our final stop on the most amazing tour was the building housing most of the to-scale mockups for training on the ISS, shuttle, soyuz, Orion, and any number of other craft. The room was like the convention floor of a civic … Continue reading →

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Mission Control: Mission Possible

Our next stop was the Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. Mission Control Center, or Building 30. It’s also know by its call sign: Houston. As in the first word spoken on the moon, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” … Continue reading →

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Aside | Posted on July 24, 2011 | Leave a comment

Boy Oh Buoyancy

Posted on July 22, 2011

The Neutral Buoyancy Lab was our next stop. The huge pool is 40 feet deep and 200 feet long, with 6.2 million gallons of water. In the pool are mockups of the ISS and the shuttle payload bay. I presume … Continue reading →

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Lunch

Posted on July 22, 2011

After the simulators, we broke for lunch at Building 3, the JSC cafeteria. By then, all 30 of the tweeters were power hungry, meaning we all needed to recharge our phones. The rest of the day, any time we paused in a … Continue reading →

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NASA giving away Space-era Artifacts

Posted on July 22, 2011

Non-profit museums, colleges, and schools can request space shuttle tiles and other excess property from the NASA program at this website: GSAXcess. There is a multi-stepped process and frankly, I’m not sure exactly how to do it. But clearly you … Continue reading →

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Great Wrap Up

Posted on July 22, 2011

This blog here has an excellent collection of video and stills of the landing of Atlantis yesterday.

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Stimulating Simulating

Posted on July 21, 2011

The fourth stop of the NASA Tweetup, after Building 16 (SAIL), the Rocket Park, and the Food Lab, was the main event: the space shuttle motion simulator at the Jake Garn Shuttle Simulator and Training Facility. The fixed shuttle simulator … Continue reading →

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Landing Photos

Posted on July 21, 2011
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This gallery contains 29 photos.

Getting lots of photos of the landing and events afterwards from news, facebook and twitter friends, NASA folks, etc. Will post some here.

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Atlantis Landing In Just a Few Hours

Posted on July 21, 2011

First thing, open NASA TV in another window and watch while you read this. And if you’re looking at mission control, compare to this picture I took yesterday: There was a window with no signal from Atlantis (on the board … Continue reading →

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World’s Most Educated Lunch Lady

Posted on July 20, 2011

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to get to meet and hear Vickie Kloeris manager of the Space Food Systems Laboratory at NASA. She’s a microbiologist with a masters in food science.  I’d not given much thought to what astronauts eat before. … Continue reading →

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Rocket Park

Posted on July 20, 2011
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This gallery contains 10 photos.

I said in the last post that our next stop after the SAIL in Building 16 was the Food Lab, but it was really Rocket Park. It is a Saturn V rocket housed in a very large building, with a … Continue reading →

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Welcome to Johnson Space Center

Posted on July 20, 2011

Started the day by driving to the Gilruth Center at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. First of all, we decided that people here can’t give directions. The directions said Gilruth was at the intersection of two streets, when it … Continue reading →

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Fine, Change Planes in Dallas, You’re a Texan

Posted on July 19, 2011

I’ve been in Houston for less than 3 hours, but according to the wise words of Hank Hill, Texan extrodinaire, I’m a Texan. The first vehicle that drove by was a man in a pickup wearing a cowboy hat. A … Continue reading →

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Houston

Posted on July 18, 2011

I drove past the Sam Houston schoolhouse on the way to the airport, thinking that it took Sam probably a whole lot longer to get to Texas than it’s going to take me today to get to a city named … Continue reading →

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Chattanooga Airport

Posted on July 18, 2011

The Chattanooga airport is named Lovell Field and is reached via Shepard Rd., but neither has anything to do with astronauts. The airport was named in 1929 in honor of John Lovell, and was a farm owned by Dr. J.B. … Continue reading →

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Watching A Live Launch vs. Flying a Simulated One

Posted on July 17, 2011

After watching the real thing from only a bone-shaking 3 miles away a little over a week ago, now I’m off to something a little better and a little worse. I get to try the shuttle simulator at Houston. A … Continue reading →

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Posted in Images, Tweetup experience | 1 Comment

Shuttle Stamp Covers

Posted on July 16, 2011

In the days preceding the final launch, KSC accepted stamped envelopes to hand cancel on the big day. They sold decorated envelopes and stamps (the Mercury issue with Alan Shepard) to make the covers there, but I presume they accepted … Continue reading →

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Posted in Images, NASA history, Space Shuttle Atlantis, Space Shuttle history, STS-135 | Leave a comment

RSS Retraction

Posted on July 16, 2011

On July 7, the day before Atlantis went up in the final launch, the Rotating Service Structure, which covers and protects the orbiter from the elements, was rolled back around 2-3 o’clock. The RSS retracted at so slow a pace, … Continue reading →

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A Patch-work Post

Posted on July 13, 2011
The first shuttle mission patch from STS-1 was somewhat triangluar, and showed two shuttles. One taking off and one orbiting. Note that the external tank was painted white for this mission.

This gallery contains 31 photos.

I’ve done posts on the mission patch tradition in general (highlighting a few patches) and the STS-135 mission patch with symbolism explained. This examines some of the high and low points of patch design. I apologize in advance for any irreverence.

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Like MacArthur Said

Posted on July 13, 2011

A tweeter just posted this picture of a whiteboard in the astronaut ready room: Like Like General MacArthur’s promise of “I shall return,” American astronauts are not meekly accepting the current state of affairs: that the United States, for the first … Continue reading →

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And Another Launch Video

Posted on July 13, 2011

Here

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Fellow Tweeter gets her Launch Video on CNN

Posted on July 13, 2011

http://ireport.cnn.com/themes/custom/resources/cvplayer/ireport_embed.swf?player=embed&configPath=http://ireport.cnn.com&playlistId=633962&contentId=633962/0&

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Booster Club

Posted on July 12, 2011

When I was younger, I was a little incredulous over claims that the space shuttle was a reusable spacecraft. First, the three rockets they attached it too fell off during launch just like the separations of the Apollo launches, and … Continue reading →

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Posted in Images, Space Shuttle Atlantis, STS-135 | Leave a comment

Here We Go Again

Posted on July 12, 2011

While in Florida for the STS-135 launch tweetup, I got the confirmation that I won a spot at the Johnson Space Center STS-135 tweetup on July 19. So it looks like I’m going to Houston to fly the shuttle simulator … Continue reading →

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All STS-135 Tweetup Tweeps

Posted on July 12, 2011

Here is a group picture of all 150 STS-135 NASA Tweetup attendees. It was just after 7:00 so we appeared on several national morning news shows who were doing live shots of the countdown clock. I’m about four over from … Continue reading →

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Posted in Countdown, Images, NASA history, Space Shuttle Atlantis, Space Shuttle history, STS-135, Tweetup experience | Leave a comment

M&Ms in Space

Posted on July 12, 2011

M&M candies made special M&Ms for the shuttle launch and passed out samples to all of us at the Tweetup. They are red, gray, and blue, and have printed either a shuttle (orbiter), 3-2-1 liftoff, or  the date July 8, 2011. … Continue reading →

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Posted in Space Shuttle Atlantis, STS-135, Tweetup experience | 1 Comment

Sorry for the posting drought

Posted on July 12, 2011

I was overwhelmed at the launch, mostly just taking pictures, taking notes, tweeting, and watching. Friday night I crashed, Saturday and Sunday I traveled, and yesterday I worked and then our internet was out. So anyway, like the Return To … Continue reading →

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The Delay

Posted on July 10, 2011

The launch of space shuttle Atlantis (STS-135) was delayed approximately 2 minutes because of the Gaseous Oxygen Vent Arm, also called the Beanie Cap. You may recall seeing it looking almost like part of the launch tower that holds the … Continue reading →

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Sequence of Fortunate Events

Posted on July 10, 2011

Have you ever wanted to ask a shuttle astronaut, “What’s a launch like?” Well, here is a minute-by-minute, and sometimes second-by-second list of what they do. This kind of thing interests me a lot. If it doesn’t interest you, that’s … Continue reading →

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The Launch

Posted on July 9, 2011
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This gallery contains 31 photos.

I have lots of things I want to post to share the last few days with you, but all you really want to see are launch pictures, right? Right.

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Follow Me On Twitter

Posted on July 8, 2011

I’m tweeting about this launch more than I’m posting here. We’re about 2 1/2 hours from launch so I doubt I’ll post before then. My twitter handle is @RennaW.

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Some Pictures From 1 Day Prior to Launch

Posted on July 8, 2011
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This gallery contains 24 photos.

Here’s just a quick collection of some shots from yesterday. I don’t have the time…no, scratch that…I don’t want to take the time to go through them because I want to do and experience things here. So enjoy.

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Astronauts, Bosses, and Sesame Street.

Posted on July 7, 2011

At the NASA Tweetup, we had several speakers. I tried to tweet highlights of what they were saying at @RennaW on twitter, but they were going so fast. First you have to know that Elmo from Sesame Street was there. … Continue reading →

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Posted in STS-135, Tweetup experience | 1 Comment

I’m here at NASA

Posted on July 7, 2011

Checked in at the badging office. So now I’m officially badged for access to the shuttle launch. We’re parked right next to the VAB, and I’m about 50 feet from the countdown clock. We’re doing introductions right now.

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Tomorrow’s News Tonight

Posted on July 6, 2011

I’m carpooling with some other people attending the tweetup that are staying in the Daytona area, and we’re leaving at 6AM. Activities start at 9AM and include meeting NASA bigwigs, astronauts, and Elmo from Sesame Street. We also will view … Continue reading →

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Weather Update

Posted on July 6, 2011

Launch Weather Forecast Remains 30 Percent “Go” for Friday  

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2 Days Until Launch

Posted on July 6, 2011

Or until the scheduled launch date, which may not end up being the launch. So perhaps I should re-title these updates. I’m posting from the luxurious Hilton Ocean Walk, overlooking the ocean, listening to the waves crash. Yep, it’s a … Continue reading →

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3 Days Until Launch

Posted on July 5, 2011

We are loading the car and ready for the big trip. The big trip that may be in vain, if it rains us out.  But that’s the space game (she said, trying to sound like one of the club). A … Continue reading →

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The Countdown Begins

Posted on July 5, 2011

COUNT BEGINS. Clocks at the Kennedy Space Center just began ticking down to Friday’s scheduled launch of Atlantis on the shuttle program’s final trek to space. The official countdown sequence started at 1 p.m. EDT inside Firing Room 4 of … Continue reading →

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Weather and Clocks

Posted on July 5, 2011

All eyes turn to the weather forecast. They’re calling for rain on launch day. And according to SPACE SHUTTLE WEATHER LAUNCH COMMIT CRITERIA , they cancel for almost anything. There’s a 60 percent chance of conditions that could prevent a … Continue reading →

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Background Noises

Posted on July 4, 2011

I finally made an intro video for The Space Crowd project. I’m having no end of trouble uploading, but that is why I’m practicing. The Space Crowd is an independent film being made at the Tweetup about space fans. To … Continue reading →

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I Knew They Had Some Kind Of Agenda

Posted on July 4, 2011

Here is the agenda for the Tweetup, or what I’ll be doing on an hour-by-hour basis this Thursday and Friday. Moreover, what YOU the reader will be doing along with me. especially if you follow me on Twitter at @RennaW. … Continue reading →

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Astronauts Arrive

Posted on July 4, 2011

The four astronauts for Friday’s shuttle launch arrived today at Kennedy Space Center at 2:45 PM. They have begun quarantine to prevent any illness while on the mission. What a bummer if they carried strep throat to the ISS. Final … Continue reading →

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6 Days Until Launch

Posted on July 2, 2011

Five days until the Tweetup’s first day, 4 days until we get to Florida. This week somewhat reminds me of New Year’s Eve the year that Virginia Tech played Texas in the Sugar Bowl. I was so busy with the … Continue reading →

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Jaw Dropping Space Shuttle Images

Posted on July 2, 2011

I thought I’d seen enough ‘super cool’ shuttle images in the past month to be a little jaded. I was wrong. Here is an incredible collection of shuttle pictures: historic, more recent, some slightly mundane, but some the best images … Continue reading →

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Posted in Images, Space Shuttle history | 1 Comment

Tweetup Experience

Posted on July 1, 2011

I finally booked my hotel. Luckily, I’m in a nice 4-star on the beach and I’m only paying $55/night!  Thanks to Shatner, if you catch my meaning. Typically, I refuse to pay more than $50/night, but it is the week … Continue reading →

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Viewing the Launch From Home

Posted on July 1, 2011

If your like most of the people on the planet, you won’t make it to Florida and will have to watch the launch on television or online. I typically end up watching from NASA TV or SpaceVidCast.

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Viewing the Space Shuttle Launch

Posted on July 1, 2011

While a handful of people won the ticket lottery and will be viewing the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis from the Causeway, Visitors Center, or Hall of Fame at KSC, what should the rest of humanity do? Where do you … Continue reading →

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