I had flown into Bush airport which is North of Houston. Johnson Space Center is South of Houston, about 20 or 30 miles away. I had my iPhone on GPS mode while it sat in the cup holder next to me. I had a sporty little Jeep SUV for a rental vehicle which seemed the perfect match for the Texan urban cowboy adventure I was now on. Surprisingly, the traffic didn’t seem anywhere as bad as expected as I stabbed my way South down through the heart of Houston on I45. ”John, my friend,” I said out loud behind the wheel, “I think you called it right.”
In my haste to continue my journey to the Tweetup I never got to confirm what John actually did for a living. This regret was playing on my mind as a light rain began to fall. I fumbled with the controls around the steering wheel trying to find where the windshield wipers were. ”If this was James Bond’s car I would have likely launched a missile or two by now,” I joked to myself to try and lighten my mood.
I noticed something in the corner of my eye and looked down to see that a pop-up alert had come up on my phone. I lifted it up out of the cup holder to take a quick look and read the text message on the screen. It was a direct message on Twitter from the reigning Queen of NASA Tweetup alumni herself, @ageekmom, or Shannon if I ever get to meet her in real life. Shannon was one of the early NASA Tweetup alumni, going back to STS-129. Since then she has become the most prolific Tweetup tweep among all 2,000 plus of us. If there is news regarding anything to do with NASA Tweetup, Shannon will have the low down on it. If someone has posted something of interest, Shannon will retweet it. There’s simply no better source for NASA Tweetup information than Shannon, and now she was direct messaging me?
I’ve had many Twitter conversations with Shannon since I first meet her online during my first Tweetup for the STS-132 mission, including some humorous quips the night before while I was still stranded in the Birmingham airport as she attempted to help lighten my spirit. But I don’t recall having ever gotten a direct message from her before, so I was very curious as to the nature of the message. I stole glances at my phone trying to make out the message.
“What? Astro Ron needs a number? What is she talking about?”
I was having a hard time figuring out what she was referencing too. The light rain was becoming heavier and I was starting to become distracted in my driving so I put the phone back in the cup holder, “Sorry Shannon, it’ll have to wait. I have to get to the Tweetup first before I can figure out what this is about.”
At roughly 1:30pm I finally made it to the Gilruth Center. I couldn’t believe I had finally made it as I quickly grabbed my phone and my video camera and darted towards the entrance through what remained of the rain. I was a bit taken back when entering to find it was the entrance to a gym. No matter, I was here and quickly dialed my contact number I was instructed to call upon arriving. I was told to hang tight and once a bus was available they would bring it by to pick me up. All that I needed to do now was wait – again.
I was truly thankful for my NASA Tweetup hosts being able to fit me in, but was mad at my situation caused by my delayed flight. I tried to not let it bother me, but as I sat in the Gilruth Center lobby I fought back against the repeated thoughts of missing the shuttle simulator that was playing over and over in my head. The Tweetup was more than half over and I was realizing that even though I had finally made it to the Gilruth Center, I still wasn’t at the Tweetup yet.
I grew more anxious as the time continued to tick by. It was after 2pm and still no sign of the bus. A promo fitness video approximately 5 minutes long was playing in a continuous loop on the lobby TV and I almost had in memorized. My legs were fidgeting as the waiting become more painful to take. I tried not to look at the TV anymore, but there was nothing else to distract me from the eye of this Tweetup storm. Somewhere around me, not too far away, my fellow cohorts were having a thunderously good time while I sat on a couch.
My only brief sabbatical from my tortured waiting was the discovery of a small snake near the entrance on the outside of the building. This caused some commotion and a small crowd to gather around to see it. By the time I made it over to look it had retreated into a gap in the wall. I only made out a few scales as I got closer, making some of the others nervous with my approach. ”Ok, I’m going to get bit and taken to the hospital just as the Tweetup bus gets here,” I thought to myself. So I played it safe and disbanded with the crowd, retreating back to my vinyl couch.
It was close to 2:30pm now and I couldn’t take it much longer. I had to get up and walk around. I headed for the front door to take a look outside. The sun was coming back out from the earlier showers and I felt that might rejuvenate me as well as work off some nervous energy. Before I made it to the door an attractive young lady came out of a side hallway near the entrance and I could tell she was looking for somebody.
“Are you Brent?”
“Yes.”
“Follow me.”
We walked briskly to the other end of the building to what appeared to be another entrance and lobby to the building. Right outside through the windows I could see a small bus waiting. ”Uh-oh, I must have gone to the wrong entrance,” I thought to myself, “Hope they weren’t waiting long.”
While I didn’t know her name yet in our hurried haste to board the bus, I had now just met Amiko, my JSC contact and one of our hosts for the #JSC135 NASA Tweetup.
The bus was a shuttle style bus like you would find toting passengers to and from an airport – basically the kind of shuttle that we didn’t have access to the night before. Amiko got into the passenger seat next to our driver and I climbed into the back immediately behind the driver to better facilitate speaking to Amiko as she filled me in on where we were going.
I knew from following the Tweetup on Twitter that I was on one of the two shuttle buses that were identified as either “red” or “blue”. The color wasn’t a reflection of the actual bus color, as it was white, but an identifier as to which bus attendees were assigned too.
I recalled reading tweets about how one of the buses was very cold. I must have been on that bus as I felt like I was in a meat locker. Being the sole rider in the back didn’t help either as I had no other bodies to absorb the chill. Regardless, I was ecstatic to be on my way. And what a way it was as we seemed to travel quite a good distance before we arrived at my first destination for the Tweetup – the Neutral Buoyancy Lab.
We pulled up to the entrance of the building behind the other shuttle bus as a stream of Tweetup badged attendees were exiting. There they were – those were my fellow tweeps – I was so happy to see them, yet feeling so awkwardly out of place. They were smiling and conversing with each other as they walked towards the bus. I wanted to introduce myself to them but Amiko was already leading me inside. We only had time for a quick peak before we had to get back on the bus to get to our next destination.
We went inside the building and up a few flights of stairs. I could barely keep up with Amiko’s pace and it wasn’t just the gait of her walk. She flooded me with information on the facility we were visiting, but I was still in a state of shock. I was starting to doubt I was actually now at the Tweetup. Surely, I had fallen asleep on the couch back at the Gilruth Center and was dreaming. In a few hours I’d wake up and realize it was over and I had missed everything.
We exited out of the stairwell and into a long hall with windows running down one side. I immediate saw the large pool that was the Neutral Buoyancy Lab that I had recognized from various NASA footage. I turned my video camera on and begun taking my first footage of the day, about 7 hours after my fellow attendees who were now in the buses waiting for me.
We didn’t stay long, just long enough for me to get a few zoomed in shots and to have the ability to say that I had seen it with my own eyes. The Neutral Buoyancy Lab is sort of like a 6 million gallon swimming pool. It is where the astronauts train for the weightlessness and hazards of space. Astronauts are suited up in their massively heavy space suits in which they do EVA’s (extra vehicular activity, aka: space walks) and then lowered into the water with a crane. The buoyancy and lack of breathable oxygen of the water creates the closest environment to space as we can get on Earth. In the pool is a full scale mockup of the main portions of the football field sized International Space Station. Astronauts spend countless sessions and untold hours in the NBL pool before ever working on the International Space Station in orbit. For me, however, 5 minutes from the overlook will have to do for now.
As we hurried back downstairs I could feel the flushness in my face from the lack of both sleep and nutrition. We exiting the NBL building and I obediently followed Amiko back to the bus. Although I was an official Tweetup attendee, I didn’t feel like one yet. In my head I was still an outcast – a Tweetup refugee. I anxiously entered the bus wondering what kind of reaction I was going to get from the others. ”So you’re the jerk that’s been holding us up,” is the response I figured was appropriate. All eyes were on me as I stepped aboard. I may have raised my hand is if to wave and blurted out, “Hi, I made it.”
The twenty of so attendees on the bus gave me a congratulatory welcome and immediately proceeded to ask questions about my travels. With all of the seats taken I took up a standing position at the rear of the bus as we pulled away from the NBL building. Standing before all my seated inquisitors, I felt oddly like I was giving a performance. ”Welcome to the travel adventures of Brent Haeseker! I will now do a song and dance for you,” I jokingly thought to myself.
It was actually rather enjoyable and I was finally starting to feel some relief. I was integrating with my fellow attendees that I had been so looking forward to meeting and I was finally getting some of my hardships from the last 24 hours off my chest.
While my adventures were an ongoing source of entertainment I was eager to find out more about what I had already missed. In particular, I wanted to know about the shuttle simulator. I was able to sneak a few questions in about it but didn’t get an over-whelming response on it. It appeared everyone was more focused on our next stop, Mission Control.
We pulled up to Building 30 at JSC where the Mission Control Center (MCC) is located. I exited the bus realizing that I still didn’t know anyone’s name. I tried stealing glances at everyone’s name tag and was somewhat bummed I didn’t have one either. I guess mine was back at the Gilruth Center?
We walked towards the entrance of Building 30 and I realized I didn’t know anyone well enough yet to join any of the cliques that had already formed since earlier in the morning or the night before at the pre-Tweetup dinner. I recognized a few Twitter handles from the name badges but I hadn’t settled into my surrounds enough yet for my brain to connect any dots.
“I think this belongs to you.”
I turned to see a smiling lady holding out a name badge towards me and for some reason my brain wasn’t connecting any dots with her either.
“Huh?” I hesitatingly took the name badge from her hands and saw that it had my name on it.
“I wanted to keep it, but you are the rightful owner.”
I still didn’t know who she was as she didn’t have a name badge on. Was she a part of the Tweetup? An employee of JSC? Since I had only met half the attendees on my bus, there were still a lot of unfamiliar faces to sort out.
“I’m Marlene, but you may know me from my Twitter handle of @omaflinger. But for today up until now, I have been you.”
“Huh?”
___________________
Part 6 coming soon!
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