Social networking on the final shuttle mission: Be careful what you 'Like'

BY TIMOTHY TAYLOR

Social networking may not connect people in the traditional sense, but be prepared for the profound impact it can have on your life and relationships, as some NASA-loving Facebook users have learned.

For the final launch of the 30-year space shuttle program this past July, a group of space fans turned to Facebook as a resource for information about the upcoming launch. With my career as a space shuttle engineer and mission controller at Kennedy Space Center quickly coming to an end along with the space shuttle program, I was randomly searching Facebook for shuttle launch topics when I ran across them. Their obvious love for space grabbed my attention and I was drawn to them. It was apparent that they would soon be missing the shuttle program almost as much as I would.

So I decided to help answer some of the questions people had. I was not expecting the reaction I got. The insights I took for granted as just part of my day job were fascinating to them! They loved the perspective I brought and encouraged me to tell them more. Before long, some people set up a private Facebook group for me, as a place to share my knowledge and stories with true space lovers. The group grew as I invited enthusiastic space fans who were posting questions on other public groups.

The group was used as a forum to discuss all things related to the upcoming launch, such as launch weather, best places to view the launch, best places to eat while at the Cape, and what to expect during a launch. Members were from across the United States and around the globe, including Canada, Italy and the United Kingdom. Many were intent on gathering information to help them make the most of their experience of witnessing what would be the final U.S.-manned mission for years to come. Others were not attending the launch in person but loved the stories and camaraderie all the same. They didn’t have friends in their face-to-face lives who shared their passion for the space program and sorrow for the end of the shuttle era. They began feeling a connection to one another through their shared love of space.

Historically, insiders at NASA rarely shared their insights on external social networking sites. However, with this being the last launch and NASA making more effort to have a presence on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, I decided to offer up some insider information to help the group make the most out of the final shuttle launch. I posted my opinion on the current status of launch issues, likelihood of on-time launch, and photos I took around the space center in areas not open to the public. To the thrilled group members, this was the ultimate social networking experience to prepare for the launch –- inside information from someone directly connected to it. I was surprised to find that sharing my stories and feelings about the end of the shuttle program was helping me work through my grief as I approached the end of the best job I’d ever had, and probably ever would have.

Someone from the group noticed some signatures of NASA employees in a photo I’d posted. They had signed their names in the “white room” in one of the orbiter processing facilities. The idea of having a permanent and intimate connection to the shuttle program fascinated them. A plot was hatched to create a poster, featuring the logo of the shuttle mission and the enthusiasts’ signatures, and photograph it in a historic location. 

I offered to take this poster to the launch pad a few hours prior to liftoff as the last workers left the pad for the final time, and to take a photo of it up close to the space shuttle Atlantis. To these space fans, this was the closest they could ever hope to come to an actual space shuttle in mission status, and it was a dream come true. They identified with the poster, and it was the next best thing to being there in person. No one had ever attempted to take such a photo so close to launch time, and there were no guarantees that I would be able to pull it off. But it went off without a hitch, and I posted it to the group. I was completely unprepared for the outporuing of response from the group members.

“From the moment the poster project was proposed to the group, I knew it would be big. I had no idea just how big, though,” says Joan Powers of Colorado Springs, Colo.

Suddenly I had a new mission to help take my mind off the end of the shuttle program. I surprised the group almost daily by taking even more remarkable photos of the signed poster in locations at the space center that were off-limits to the public, and the group began logging in even more eagerly to discover where their signatures had been each day. Favorite photos include the landing site of the final space shuttle mission, inside the space shuttle Atlantis, inside the flight deck of Discovery, and the engine compartment of Endeavour.

A couple of days before the final landing of Atlantis, I posted my intention to visit the site of the Challenger wreckage at the end of the final shuttle landing day. The group, wishing to pay their respects and to help me on the day of my farewell to the shuttle program, surprised me by sending flowers to me, so that I could take them to the Challenger site the next day.

That was a tough day for me. I had to face the reality that the shuttle program was ending, and so was the best professional experience of my life. But the group was there with me in spirit, sending me well wishes on Facebook, flowers to my hotel, and via the poster tucked under my arm. To help bring closure to the shuttle program for me, I went through a series of rituals at the space center that day. The most meaningful one for me was visiting the burial site of the Challenger wreckage. This became one of the most poignant pictures for the group, of their flowers on the final resting place of Challenger with the poster, a wrenching reminder for anyone who experienced the event.

It was not only space tourists who were drawn in to the poster project, code named “Project T2.” To the NASA engineer, Project T2 was his effort to document the historic final moments of the last space shuttle mission and the end of America’s greatest technological era, which started with the Apollo moon landings. NASA employee Ron Feile, Shuttle Landing Facility Manager, witnessed every space shuttle landing at Kennedy Space Center as close as anyone can view it. Even after 30 years of space shuttle history, Ron had never seen anything like the T2 project and wanted to be a part of the T2 documentation of the end of the space shuttle program. At his feet in his photo are nine characters painted in red which brand the pavement where thirty years came to an end, on July 21, 2011, “STS-135 NLG" (nose landing gear). Two of the greatest landings in human history happened within a few hours of each other, but spread out across decades. On the anniversary of the first moon landing on July 20, 1969, the shuttle era came to a close.

The first picture inspired the group to dream. It opened their minds to believe that, if they could dream it, they could make it happen. 

“Being part of this group has been transformative,” says Kristine Kisky of Seattle, Wash. “It's inspired me to chase dreams and reach for the stars. I've met remarkable people and made lifelong friends. And perhaps best of all, it has helped forge a strong connection to and love of the U.S. space program in my children." 

Similar feelings crossed the globe. “The way I look at the Poster project was it took the end of a era (the space shuttle) for a group of people to develop a greater love of the space program though each other as a team,” says Bob Bowen of Belfast, UK. “The poster helped everyone from all walks of life to move on and look to the future instead of dwelling on the past or end. By working together the possibilities are endless.”

As the poster gained fame and made the rounds, it acquired four famous and coveted signatures: those of Doug Hurley, Chris Ferguson, Rex Walheim and Sandy Magnus, the astronauts who flew on the final shuttle mission. I met Rex and Doug at the Marshall Space Flight Center, and one of the group members met Chris and Sandy at a NASA-sponsored social media event, a Tweetup, where invited participants sharer their experience via Twitter during the event to inspire others with their love of space. With the final two astronaut signatures, the poster was transformed into a masterpiece.

Just as the space program took humans off-planet, the T2 project was destined to do the same with the poster. Ultimately, it was photographed on the International Space Station orbiting the Earth, courtesy of Japanese astronaut Dr. Satoshi Furukawa and astronaut/photographer Mike Fossum.

And now it’s gone viral. Members of the group began photographing copies of the poster in far-flung places, including mystical Stonehenge, the cathedral in Milan, Italy, atop Kilimanjaro, in the cockpit of a 777 crossing over the Atlantic, and in the Antarctic. It’s been photographed with celebrities, including Danica Patrick and Apollo astronaut Al Worden. Group members even carry a credit-card sized miniature of the poster in their wallets. Taking 72 space friends to exotic locations and posting the pictures on Facebook has become a favorite pastime of the group.

“We identified with the poster and it felt as though we literally did visit the places ‘we’ were photographed,” says Powers.

What started out as a few people clicking a simple ‘Like’ button on a social networking site ended up creating a very close group of friends who experienced something together that no other group had ever done. As a team, they created the poster and added their signatures. They suggested locations for poster photos, with the ultimate photo taken in orbit on the International Space Station. Their names circled the globe at 17,500 mph, 220 miles above Earth. It was the closest they could ever come to space travel themselves, and the achievement of what seemed an impossible dream.

“To see some of the amazing things that have happened to the poster on its adventure is truly astonishing,” says Lloyd Campbell of Apalachin, N.Y. “From the start at the top of Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, to the inside of the Space Shuttle Orbiters, then getting the entire STS-135 crew to sign it, and all the places in between...then to see it aboard the International Space Station, with pens floating near it, was truly inspiring.”

Members of this group of 72 with a serious love of NASA’s space program have since managed to get themselves invited to NASA’s Tweetups, launches and other extraordinary space-related events, and the group was represented at the recent GRAIL, Mars Curiosity and STS-135 crew member NASA Tweetups. They have banded together to form deep and unexpected friendships and many have now met face to face. And it all started with a chance meeting on Facebook.

“The poster project means so much to me. It has introduced me to a very special group of people who can relate to me,” says Michelle Pepitone of West Palm Beach, Fla. “I have some new, amazing friends. All of us bring something different, yet with a similar component, to the group.”

For Campbell, the adventure never seems to end: “I am looking forward to see where it goes next, to distract me from life’s pitfalls, even if just for a few minutes,” he says.

So the next time you are rambling around on some social networking site thinking you are merely passing through, just know that you can end up in a place that will change your life forever. Gone are the days where life-changing events happen only in the reality of face-to-face endeavors.

Now you can enter that door through the click of a Like button or by replying to a Tweet. However, be ready for what Tania Ceniceros from El Paso, Texas, felt from the poster project: "The poster project truly reinforced my long-held belief, Behind every accomplished dream, there is always a transformation," she said.

Tim Taylor is a contributing writer for Technology Alabama.com. He works as an engineer supporting NASA and the Department of Defense space programs. Contact him via email at timothyetaylor@gmail.com.

Quotes from the group members: