Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and NASA Will Invite 30 of Their Social Media Followers to Welcome Space Shuttle Discovery

The National Air and Space Museum and NASA will invite 30 of their social media followers to the first “NASA Social” April 19 to welcome space shuttle Discovery to the National Collection. Registration opens at noon EDT Thursday, March 15, and closes at noon EDT Friday, March 16. Registration is at www.nasa.gov/social. Thirty participants will be randomly selected from online registrations.

A “NASA Social” is an event for people who use one of NASA’s social media accounts. Each participant may invite one guest and all registrants must be 13 or older.

The social media group will tour the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center; speak with museum curators, NASA scientists and engineers; and will have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of viewing and photographing space shuttles Enterprise and Discovery together. Participants will also meet fellow space enthusiasts who are active on social media and members of the Smithsonian’s and NASA’s social media teams.

Discovery will be officially transferred by NASA into the Smithsonian’s collection April 19 in an outdoor ceremony open to the public. The event will begin with Discovery’s arrival from adjacent Dulles Airport onto the tow road behind the center. That evening specialists from NASA and the museum’s Collections Division will begin repositioning Enterprise and Discovery, the latter to be moved inside the Center’s James S. McDonnell Space Hangar. For information and updates about Discovery arrival events, visit http://discovery.si.edu.

The National Air and Space Museum operates two buildings in the Washington, D.C., area: the flagship building on the National Mall and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va., near Washington’s Dulles International Airport. Both facilities are open daily from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. (closed Dec. 25).

For more information and to register, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/social.

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SI-112-2012