For Shuttle Launch, Tweeters Will Boldly Go Along — Sort Of

The latest word from Florida is that the skies are clouding up — which might mean the postponement of today's scheduled 2:28 p.m. ET liftoff of the shuttle Atlantis.

But no matter what, the Tweeters are tweeting.

As most fans of Twitter and NASA probably already know, about "110 lucky followers of NASA's Twitter feed" are at the Kennedy Space Center to chronicle the launch 140 characters (or fewer) at a time.

You can see what they're saying by going to Twitter and searching for #nasatweetup. Or, just click here.

So, what are folks saying? Here's a sampling:

lexigeek: The astronauts are now in the astrovan, a modified airstream caravan, with a helicopter escort. En route to our location.

FlyingPhotog: Astronauts just drove past us to the launchpad, stopped and waved from the famous AirStream van! http://bit.ly/F7KmY #nasatweetup

AeroLeaders2: Astronaut van just stopped bout 50 yards from us. Saw them inside, but couldn't get pic b/c cruddy iPhone camera (sorry). #nasatweetup

We'll pass on more tweets later.

As for the launch itself, NASA TV is webcasting here.

Update at 2:33 p.m. ET. This nicely sums up what many tweeters are saying:

bn9nasa: That was incredible. The roar of the liftoff engulfed my entire being. AMAZING. #nasatweetup

Update at 2:28 p.m. ET: The shuttle just blasted off.

Update at 2:17 p.m. ET. Everything looks good for a launch in about 10 minutes:

tim846: the remaining few people in the #NASATweetup tent are heading outside to watch the launch of STS-129!

Update at 1:38 p.m. ET: The tweeters have been visited by some dignitaries at their Space Center tent. Astronaut Scott Kelly is among them. Here's a tweet one of his comments:

terrymyers: The shuttle smells like anaseptic and garbage after a few days says Scott Kelly. :) #nasatweetup

Update at 1:15 p.m. ET: Many of the tweeters are extolling the virtues of SpaceFlightNow.com and its webcast of the news.