Bloomington woman promotes NASA soil mission through social media

Posted on February 3, 2015

Katie Eades is helping to promote through social media NASA's mission to study soil moisture via satellite. (Photo courtesy Katie Eades/Twitter)

By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – NASA has sent a satellite into space to study soil moisture, and it sent a Bloomington woman to California to tell us about it.

NASA has launched a $916 million mission to measure moisture in the Earth's soil.  Katie Eades who works in social media at Country Financial, was chosen along with several dozen other members across the country to get an up close look at the launch and use social media to promote it.

Eades was told, "What we want you to do is to come out and experience this." "Don't be taking photos. Don't be taking videos, because you'll be able to find those on Youtube and online." "Experience it."

Eades spent last week at Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California to tour the control center and launch site and participated in the live stream of the NASA TV broadcast about the mission.

The group had planned to stay for the launch, but it was delayed two days by weather and repairs.

Eades told WJBC's Scott Laughlin, the satellite will spend the next three years in space, and is intended to improve forecasting and our safety and greatly aid farmers in particular.

You can follow her blog here http://katieeades.com/2015/02/03/my-nasa-experience/.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].

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