As I blogged earlier, I've been lucky enough to be selected by NASA to participate in a two day meeting of 150 of NASA's twitter followers, celebrating the final space shuttle launch. Atlantis is scheduled to depart at 11:20am on Friday July 8th.

For realtime updates, follow me on Twitter at @ShareefJackson or on my Google Plus account at gplus.to/Shareef

I am crashing after a fabulous day at the Kennedy Space Center press site. I've participated in an exclusive look within the NASA complex headed by people that actually make things tick.

The full photo album is located on my Google Plus account,( see my previous blog post for details on Google Plus and why I won't be heading to Facebok much anymore) I'll be sharing four key shots below.

Check out our agenda below. It's pretty hectic, but filled with lots of interaction with scientists, astronauts, and other NASA employees. And yes, I need to be there around 5am tomorrow. I'm in Orlando, which without traffic is just over an hour travel time. With the traffic of the last shuttle launch EVER though, I'm guessing at least two to three hours.

Astronaut Doug Wheelock was kind enough to pose with me in front of space shuttle Atlantis. This is the closest that non-NASA workers are allowed to the shuttle. We will experience the actual launch from much farther away - about 3 miles from the launch pad.

For a while, it began raining. Actually, it became POURING. Like, Biblically. Luckily it cleared up later, and it gives me hope that there will be no rain tomorrow during the launch attempt. Here is a shot I took from the press tent of the Vehicle Assembly Building covered in rain.

Speaking of the Vehicle ASsembly Building, it is HUGE. I can see why Michael Bay used it to film from scenes from Transformers - it's the only indoor place that can fit a robot, in my humble opinion. I had to lay on my back to capture the amazing height of this structure.