Solar System Ambassador Attends White House State of the Union 2012 Tweetup in Washington, DC Aneesh Chopra, US CTO Addressing SOTU Tweeps Solar System Ambassador Tony Rice at the White House State of the Union Tweetup Visiting Jim Adams (@nasajim), Deputy Director of Planetary Science at NASA HQ Tony Rice at the White House On January 24, NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador Tony Rice of North Carolina, @rtphokie on Twitter, was privileged to be part of the White House State of the Union 2012 Tweetup in Washington, DC. Rice, a veteran of the NASA Langley and Juno Tweetups, had a full day which included: - A tour of the White House in the morning. - A briefing by the United States Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra. - Viewing the President’s State of the Union Address from the Executive Building. As the group waited to enter the executive building, Rice tweeted, “Outside the old executive building waiting for the #SOTU tweetup having an impromptu naked eye planetary observing session.” After listening to the address, he tweeted, “Privileged to meet Secretary of Education Duncan, talked about helping teachers find all the great NASA & other fed produced class resources.” Rice’s last tweet of the day was, “Happy 8th Birthday MER-B, Opportunity, 2756 Martian Sols past its ‘warranty’. Pretty good return on investment.” On January 25, Rice visited NASA Headquarters to meet Jim Adams (@nasajim), Deputy Director of Planetary Science and tweeted, “Thanks to @nasajim for his time today. Great talking with everyone there. All set for heliophysics for 11 year olds now.” January 30, 2012