You do what Stefanie Gordon did yesterday on her Delta flight from New York City (LGA) to West Palm Beach (PBI) and takes several photos of the Space Shuttle Endeavor’s last lift off from Kennedy Space Center (KSC). That single action did not gain Stefanie her celebrity status but what she did when she got to West Palm Beach did.
After getting onto the Delta flight in LaGuardia (LGA) she sent her last tweet and turned off her iPhone 3GS, because she decided not to pay for in-flight WiFi, and then proceed to sleep through most of it. Until the plane began its decent to Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) and the pilot came on announcing the Space Shuttle Endeavor has just lifted off KSC.
When Stefanie landed and got to a WiFi hotspot she sent the following tweet.
This tweet and the photos she took were picked up by local and national media within minutes, resulting in numerous telephone interviews. The media even interviewed her father before she made it to her parents’ home from the airport. Stefanie’s Twitter account gain over 2500+ followers within one day. This surely demonstrates the power of social media.
You can see some of the photos fellow Flickr community members; including Stefanie’s (brand new Flickr account), took of the historic flight.