NASA has invited 150 followers of its Twitter account to attend the launch of the final space shuttle in Florida on Friday 8 July.
NASA selected the participants at random, and some of them will be from Ireland including Ruth McAvinia (she’s on Twitter @ruthie147). Ruth is a freelance journalist and broadcaster, and has reported on previous shuttle launches for RTÉ. She also teaches at the International Space University, which is based in Strasbourg, France.
The lift-off for the 12-day mission is scheduled for 3.26pm GMT (or 4.26pm Irish time).
Learn more
Use NASA’s Twitter list to see who else has been invited to the launch.
Follow the last shuttle launch on Twitter by using the #STS135 and #NASATweetup hashtags.
Get teaching resources from ESERO Ireland (the European Space Education Resource Office), which promotes space as a theme to inspire and engage young people in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The space shuttle on the launch pad. Photo: NASA
