Vertical Motion Simulator. Hammers up and down a long distance, rapidly. Participants occupy little "pods" which are super-glued to the top. Ok they are bolted on.

The pod interiors are reconfigured with instrumentation paralleling various craft.

I lost my breath driving toward the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center for the first time. It was an awe-inspiring and beautiful sight. At 525 feet tall, it is a beacon for NASA and all space travelers.

Read up on its history: science.ksc.nasa.gov/facilities/vab.html

@ageekmom

This is the actual heat shield from a Mercury or Gemini capsule scarred from entering the atmosphere at tens of thousands of miles per hour.

Snapshots from NASA Tweetup (on Twitter: #NASATweetup) for Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Launch, Nov. 25 & 26, 2011, Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

Atlantis on top of its' plume of smoke.

Snapshots from NASA Tweetup (on Twitter: #NASATweetup) for Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Launch, Kennedy Space Center, Fla., Nov. 25, 2011.

Wide angle shot with Opteka lens attachment.

A 1:2 model of Cassini: runner up for Best Space Probe™.

Space Shuttle Discovery sits on Launch Pad 39A the night before her final launch. Taken just before Rotating Service Structure (RSS) retraction.

Saturn V Engine at Kennedy Space Center

NASATweetUp heroine Stephanie Schierholz

Mission plaque from Apollo 1, which tragically claimed the lives of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, when a fire broke out in their command module during a ground test

Piers Sellers, deputy director, Sciences and Exploration Directorate, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (@NASAGoddard)

Juno's Atlas V heads uphill

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver stopped by for a chat on the morning of the launch and answered some of our questions.

@ageekmom Space tweeple Society

Atlas V rocket takes off from Cape Canaveral carrying Juno, on its way to Jupiter.