Astronaut has pre-launch twitters

Mike Massimino, a Rice adjunct professor in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, used Twitter to keep everyone clued in as he was getting ready to launch aboard the space shuttle Atlantis on May 12. Massimino tweeted his experiences during his final month of preparation.

On the mission, Massimino has performed two spacewalks of about 8 hourse each to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope in high Earth orbit. This is his second spaceflight and second visit to the fabled telescope.

You can see Massimino's running commentary at www.twitter.com/Astro_Mike, and watch Rice News for more about his mission.

Rice is also on Twitter. Check us out at www.twitter.com/riceuniversity.