Space Tweet Up with Andre Kuipers 29th of May

On the 29th of May there was a André Tweet Up at ESTEC organized by ESA. Last April, people were invited via ESA’s Twitter account @ESA, to send a question they would like to ask André. The lucky group was chosen from more than 500 entries to attend the SpaceTweetup in ESTEC, the Netherlands. Moog Bradford was selected among 80 participants to attend the Tweetup. Of the 80 participants, 10 participants (like Babette van Veen) had the chance to put a question directly to André Kuipers in a live inflight call with the International Space Station.

Before the video call, the Twitter followers were treated to an interactive 3D tour of the Space Station, saw a zero-gravity drop tower in action and visited ESTEC’s test centre. Invitees could control ESA’s Eurobot rover by sending commands via Twitter. Orders such as 'move backwards 3 m” made Eurobot in Turin, Italy react as instructed. Spacetweep extraordinaire Remco Timmermans made a presentation on his 21 December trip to Baikonur. He was one of only two tourists to brave the cold and see André launched into space. In the run up to the live event yesterday, ESA astronaut Christer Fugelsang gave a personal account of his two missions to the Space Station as well as introducing ESA’s involvement in the orbital outpost, including the Automated Transfer Vehicle, Europe’s Columbus science module and the microgravity science programme.

While waiting for the call, the 80 winners met friends and made new ones. For some, it was an opportunity to see in person people they only knew via social media. Tweeps from Spain, Italy, Germany, USA and and many from André’s home country, the Netherlands, attended the event. After 20 minutes the call was over, with loud applause from the audience as André waved goodbye.

Click on the pictures below the watch the live call with André Kuipers.


Live from the International Space Station

Get a good impression of this exciting event by clicking on the two video's below.


#Andretweetup

Hallo André  - Babette van Veen

Source: ESA