Thanksgiving shouldn’t be the only day you think about what you’re thankful for. But if that’s the day that prompts you, at least you do take the time to reflect. Here are my 10 things I’m thankful for, which is heavily space related this year!

NASA Social

If you haven’t heard of a NASA Tweetup, or nowadays, a NASA Social, head over to the NASA website and sign up for great opportunities to join other social media followers and get some awesome behind the scenes access of what NASA and other space partners are doing. Getting to see the Mars Curiosity Rover launch, seeing huge satellite dishes at Goldstone, and sharing the last shuttle rollover with fellow tweeps, these events are really great opportunities to connect with people with similar interests.

Santa makes an appearance during the 2011 Macy’s Thankgiving Day Parade in New York City.

What Space Camp Tweetup can be complete without a tour of the facilities? During the MathAlive! Space Camp Tweetup, we had the opportunity to visit some fascinating places including the Habitat and the training center where Space Campers spend a majority of their time. Our tour guide, Jason, started the tour under the full shuttle stack with Space Shuttle Pathfinder sitting above the External fuel tank. When you’re standing under such a large vehicle, you start to understand what an amazing feat the Space Shuttle Program really was.

Autumn colors were vibrant in Huntsville, AL in front of the Davidson Center for Space Exploration at the US Space & Rocket Center.

During the MathAlive! Space Camp tweetup last week, we were very fortunate to have five-time Astronaut Robert “Hoot” Gibson speak to us about flying aboard one of the most beautiful spacecraft the United States has sent to space.

Gibson has been described by the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Magazine as the Man Who’s Flown Everything. Among his Astronaut peers, he was known as the best of the best and the Chuck Yeager of the Astronaut Corps, able to fly anything with a stick and throttle. From light piston aircraft to thundering fighters, supersonic jets to the Space Shuttle, Hoot has flown it.

The first speaker at Space Camp’s MathAlive! tweetup in Huntsville, AL was Raytheon Company plant manager Angel Crespo. They are opening a new missile plant in about two weeks and partnering with Missile Defense Agency located at the Redstone Arsenal. They explored more than 23 locations across the country but chose Huntsville for a talented community, easy transportation via: air, water, highway, and rail, and a favorable location for sensitive operations. Construction of the Huntsville plant started in June 2011 and should be completed around Thanksgiving. It will open on November 26th to the public and start operations the following Monday.

Today I am in Huntsville, Alabama for a MathAlive tweetup at Space Camp. It’s going to be an exciting day getting to see behind the scenes of Space Camp, getting to try out the Multi-Axis Trainer and simulators, and meeting five time Astronaut Robert “Hoot” Gibson.

After the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Open Air Museum, we headed back inside to start the NASA Social. John Yembrick (@yembrick) and Jason Townsend (@jtowns) started the introductions off.

Our first event of the day at the Goldstone Deep Space Network NASA Social was to commmerate the Open Air Museum. It all started with an idea and dream, eight years ago with Marie Massey, who at the time was the Outreach Coordinator. She thought, wouldn’t it be great to have an outdoor museum for visitors and guests to see the some of the componentry that are on some of the antenna systems?