Space Shuttle Lovers Flock to Final Flight of Atlantis

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ? It looks like the space shuttle Atlantisnow has its own groupies. More than 150 Twittering space fans gathered atNASA's Kennedy Space Center here on Friday to watch Atlantis' final voyage.

It was NASA's second launch "tweetup," a meetingfor NASA fans on the microblogging site Twitter. The attendants came from 30states, including Alaska, and places as far away as England, the Netherlands,and Puerto Rico.

"This is definitely a dream come true," saidSultana Ali, of Orlando, Fla., of the chance to watch a shuttlelaunch in person. "I've died and gone tospace nerd heaven," she tweeted later under the name @globalsultana.

"I hope I can feel the ground move and the hairs on myarm stand up," said Mauria Ellenson of Minneapolis, Minn., predicting whatit might feel like at the moment of liftoff. "The experience is aonce-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

"Here at NASA, we think we have some pretty spectacularthings to communicate with the public," NASA spokesman Mike Curie told SPACE.com."In the modern era of social media we have the opportunity for directcommunication. We're finding there's great interest in what NASA isdoing."

"I've wanted to see a launch since I was a kid," saidJonathan Smith of Lafayette, Ind. "When I heard it was retiring, Ithought, 'I've got to get here.'"

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SPACE.com is providing complete coverage of Atlantis'STS-132 mission to the International Space Station with Senior Writer Clara Moskowitzin Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Managing Editor Tariq Malik based in New York. Click here for shuttlemission updates and a link to NASA TV.

Clara Moskowitz is a science and space writer who joined the Space.com team in 2008 and served as Assistant Managing Editor from 2011 to 2013. Clara has a bachelor's degree in astronomy and physics from Wesleyan University, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She covers everything from astronomy to human spaceflight and once aced a NASTAR suborbital spaceflight training program for space missions. Clara is currently Associate Editor of Scientific American. To see her latest project is, follow Clara on Twitter.