NASA Picks Fontbonne Alumna for Atlantis Launch Event

alumna Christine Ruder has always been fascinated with space. She visited NASA several times with her son when he was younger. She can't resist the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum when she goes to Washington, D.C.

Now, Ruder has been chosen to watch—in person—the final space shuttle launch, planned Friday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

"I'm a huge fan of history anyway," Ruder said Wednesday by phone from Florida. "As a teacher, it's obviously a teaching moment for me, and I'm excited about that."

The third-grade teacher at Truman Elementary in Rolla, MO, nearly missed her chance: An email stating she'd been chosen to attend the launch got caught in her spam filter for three days.

"I was shaking so bad I could not respond fast enough," said Ruder, who graduated from Clayton's Fontbonne in December with her master's in computer education. She told NASA she would be attending hours before a noon deadline.

Ruder learned of the NASA opportunity through Krissy Venosdale, a Hillsboro, MO educator she follows on the social network Twitter. Ruder has used the network for about a year and a half under the handle of @jhox1 and has followed NASA (not surprisingly, @NASA) for a few months.

Venosdale, who uses the handle @ktvee, had previously been chosen for a NASA tweetup, a gathering of Twitter users hand-picked by NASA to visit its facilities, meet astronauts and spend time with other people who have similar interests.

During the teacher's visit, Ruder read her messages about the space experience to the class. The class also watched the space shuttle and messaged Venosdale with questions about her experience.

So when Venosdale told Ruder about the opportunity to watch Atlantis launch at an upcoming tweetup, she couldn't resist.

I "really thought I had a snowball's chance," Ruder said. She applied in early June and learned just a few weeks ago that she had been chosen.

The 150 NASA tweetup attendees are responsible for expenses incurred during the trip, its website states. The event begins Thursday and continues Friday.

Ruder said Wednesday that she had so far spent time with another tweetup attendee and received a free pass to NASA that will allow her to visit twice over a seven-day period.

The group is expected to tour NASA and speak with several astronauts Thursday, she said. On Friday, she and other tweetup attendees will stand by the press corps for the launch.

And while there is only a 30 percent that the launch will happen Friday, she said, she plans to stick longer if necessary. Her son, Matthew, also will travel from St. Louis to Florida for the launch.

"I'm not missing this," Ruder said.