Reported by Scott Harris
WASHINGTON -- A lucky group of space enthusiasts got the chance to speak directly with astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
NASA invited only 35 Twitter users to a “Tweetup” at the agency’s national headquarters to talk live with astronauts Nicole Stott (@Astro_Nicole) and Jeff Williams (@Astro_Jeff).
However, the “Tweetup” was cut short by a false alarm on the International Space Station.
Stott and Williams were midway through a live interview with the group at Washington, D.C. when they were interrupted by a loud beeping.
"Excuse us just a second," Williams said as he and Stott scrambled to check their consoles to investigate the source of the alarm. Soon after, the station passed out of communications range with ground stations, ending the live video link with the two astronauts.
The alert came from a smoke alarm in the station's Russian-built service module, but there was no actual cause for concern, NASA said.
"It was a false alarm," NASA wrote on their Twitter account.
"I think we've shown here in the recent past that Twitter is an effective way to get the word out about what we're doing," Williams said Wednesday during the event.
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» Realtime Results for #NASATweetup
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@CFNews13_Space | @CFNews13 | Twitter Resources
The Tweetup gave NASA’s Twitter followers a chance to ask the space station crewmembers questions about what life is like in space during a 20-minute downlink.
Current and former astronauts also answered questions from Earth while waiting for the Earth-to-space video hookup.
More than 1 million people follow one of NASA's accounts on the social networking site.
The event was NASA’s third Tweetup since taking full advantage of the social networking platform.
NASA has also planned another Twitter event at the Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 11. That event has been filled.
Wednesday’s Tweetup came as the Senate Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Science and Space met to convince President Barack Obama to fund a robust space program.
NASA hoped to convince a different crowd -- the public -- as it continues to reach out via social media sites like Twitter.
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