Physics student wins NASA tour, plans tweets

November 04, 2011

Mark Liederbach's dream job is to work at a NASA research facility. On Tuesday, Nov. 8, the UW-Whitewater sophomore will get a taste of what it's like. And anyone can use social media to follow along on his journey.

Liederbach, a physics major from Greendale, is one of 1.5 million people who follow NASA on Twitter. The space organization decided to invite 50 of its followers for a rare, behind-the-scenes tour of its Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. The odds of being chosen were slim, but Liederbach decided to enter the contest, and ended up a winner.

"I'm really excited to see how the facility operates," he said.

Liederbach will get a personalized tour, have lunch with an astronaut, tour a wind tunnel, talk with NASA experts and visit the historic Landing and Impact Research Facility, where Neil Armstrong trained to land on the moon.

"The rest of the schedule is top secret," Liederbach said. To find out what happens, people can follow Liederbach on Twitter at @MarkLiederbach. The hashtag is #NASATweetup.

Established in 1917, Langley's current role at NASA includes aviation, science and space research. Langley researchers are testing space capsules for water landings, developing technologies to make aircraft faster, quieter, safer and greener, and studying Earth's atmosphere to understand global climate change.