NASA invites social media users to attend rocket launch

Hey all you Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Vine and Pinterest users. NASA has an invite for you.

The space agency is offering credentials – like the kind it issues to traditional journalists – to social media users for the launch of the redesigned Antares rocket on Aug. 22.

This is not an offer for the casual tweeter.

NASA is inviting people who actively use multiple social networking platforms to collect, report, analyze and disseminate news, it says. The agency wants users who can help them reach people outside of its traditional audiences.

Antares is the marquee vehicle of the private spaceflight company Orbital ATK. It will launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to carry a capsule full of cargo to the International Space Station.

The last time NASA tried to send this rocket into the great beyond, things didn’t go exactly as planned.

The rocket has been grounded since October 2014 when its previous version exploded just seconds after launch because of engine problems, according to The Verge.

The effort to get the updated rocket back on track has had a few glitches, too, with an original July launch pushed back to the August date.

NASA will choose up to 50 active social media users to watch the launch during a two-day event. They’ll be given the same access as other news media – a tour of the flight facility, a chance to meet NASA and Orbital ATK reps, and hang out time with NASA’s social media teams.

It’s not an all-expenses-paid trip, Travel and food are on you. Deadline to apply is 10:59 pm Central on Sunday, July 31.

Click here for more information.

This story was originally published July 29, 2016 at 2:24 PM with the headline "NASA invites social media users to attend rocket launch."