Social media group spends a day at SSL for ICON "NASA Social"

The Space Sciences Lab had the great pleasure of hosting this fantastic group of social media bloggers all day on June 13 for a "NASA Social" featuring ICON. A NASA Social event is an informal meeting of people who engage with NASA social media accounts. After applying for media credentials and being vetted by NASA, they have the opportunity to go behind-the-scenes at NASA facilities and events and speak with scientists, engineers, technicians and managers, and they tweet and post to their respective social media along the way.

Our closest NASA Social visitor came from San Jose UC Berkeley and the farthest from Colombia, South America; a YouTuber came from Montreal. Their day at SSL began with talks and close interaction with the ICON team and the ICON life-size payload model. The afternoon included a special tour of mission operations and an opportunity to get close to the 11-meter satellite dish during a data pass — the dish was moving and tracking the RHESSI satellite. Along the way, our visitors also heard about Parker Solar Probe, scientific ballooning, space science outreach and got to visit the FOXSI-3 rocket in the lab's high bay. These folks were so positive and curious, interested in everything and everyone, we were sorry to say goodbye at the end of the day!