Geeky 'tweeters' To Report On Space Shuttle Launch

MARCIA DUNN

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Fingers will be flying when space shuttle Atlantis blasts off Monday: About 100 of NASA's geekiest fans will be on hand, pecking away at iPhones, BlackBerrys, laptops and other Twittering gadgets.

They plan to let loose with electronic messages — provided they aren't so swept away by the afternoon liftoff that they fall uncharacteristically silent for a moment or two.

"I'll be uploading stuff as it happens," promised Steve Wake, 38, a computer programmer who flew in from Denver. "On launch day, who knows? I may be too excited about everything else to even think about doing that stuff. When it's over with, I'm sure I will."

Laura Burns already has a strategy. She figures she'll have the words typed in and her finger hovering over the button so she can send a tweet at the moment of liftoff.

"I'll have to be like juggling my iPhone and my camera and my eyes, and trying to get everything all at once," said Burns, 33, a software systems engineer from Columbia, Md. She's using the Twitter name "moonrangerlaura" to chronicle her entire trip — including the drive to Cape Canaveral and a pit stop for MoonPies.