Jason Townsend Online space communicator by day who craves good friends, food + wine by night
"These NASA superfans won a chance to watch a rocket take off for the moon" - Washington Post
Do you love space? Great. Do you want to go to a rocket launch? Great. NASA has a program for that, at least if you’re active on social media.
In the NASA Social program, online followers can apply to attend NASA events and nerd out with their fellow space fans. The program started with a Tweet-up hosted by the Jet Propulsion Lab in 2009 and is now on its 71st event At some events, they also accredit select members from NASA’s social media community as members of the traditional press media, embedding them in news conferences and tours so they “can share in covering the mission as citizen journalists,” according to NASA Deputy Social Media Manager Jason Townsend.
Townsend is leading the NASA Social program surrounding the launch of NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. He says the program brings in space fans from all walks of life who are united by an interest in NASA’s mission to explore the universe and learn more about our home planet.
“We’re able to go behind the scenes and really share unique experiences with everyone”, Townsend says, “From for example today, the rocket launch where we’re getting ready to go do science on the moon to a variety of other things like the space station, astronaut training and deep space missions going to outer planets, and everything in between.”