NASA Astronaut Doug Wheelock Wins Social Media Shorty Award

WASHINGTON -- NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock was honored with a Shorty
Award for an image of the moon he took and posted to his Twitter
account, @Astro_Wheels, while living aboard the International Space
Station last year. The awards ceremony was held at the TimesCenter in
New York City on Monday, March 28.

The Shorty Awards honor the people and organizations producing
short-form, real-time social media content. Winners are determined by
a combination of popular vote and members of the Real-Time Academy of
Short Form Arts & Sciences.

Wheelock's "Moon from Space" image was selected as the best Real-Time
Photo of the Year. The image is available at:

http://twitpic.com/1yzp75

"The dream of space exploration belongs to everyone, and I am grateful
I can play even a small role in connecting people to the universe,"
said Wheelock. "At NASA we are in the business of making seemingly
impossible dreams come true every day. We want to captivate, inspire,
and energize the next generation of scientists, engineers, and space explorers."

NASA's Twitter account @NASA and another tweeting astronaut, Paolo
Nespoli of the European Space Agency, were finalists in the Shorty's
Science category. Nespoli, who is currently aboard the space station,
sent a video greeting to guests at the ceremony.

In addition, Wheelock's Oct. 22, 2010, "check-in" to the International
Space Station on Foursquare was a finalist in two other Shorty
categories: Wheelock as Foursquare Mayor of the Year and the
International Space Station as Foursquare Location of the Year.

"NASA is very honored that the voting public recognized our efforts to
engage with and connect people to their space program using social
media," said Stephanie Schierholz, social media manager at NASA
Headquarters in Washington.

To follow Wheelock's updates on Twitter, visit:

http://www.twitter.com/Astro_Wheels

To find all the ways you can connect and collaborate with NASA, and
for more information about NASA's partnership with Foursquare and
Wheelock's out-of-this-world check-in, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/connect

For more information about the Shorty Awards, visit:

http://shortyawards.com

Source: NASA

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