SOUTH JERSEY

SJ native has blast on social media missions

Matt Flowers
@CP_MFlowers
Former Marlton resident Tara Foster is in Western Australia this week to social media report on the New Norcia Deep Space listening station for the European Space Agency.

A former Marlton resident is using social media prowess to report on the latest in space exploration.

Tara Foster is in Western Australia this week to attend the European Space Agency’s (ESA) #SocialSpaceWA event.

The 35-year-old Foster was one of 15 social media rock stars from around the world chosen to attend the inauguration ceremony of a new, 14-foot deep-space antenna hosted by the ESA in New Norcia, Western Australia, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

New Norcia currently has a 114-foot diameter dish for tracking deep-space missions such as Rosetta, Mars Express and Gaia, typically voyaging in the solar system millions of miles away.

Its size and technology are not ideal, however, for initial signaling to new satellites in low-Earth orbit.

Foster says the new dish will lock onto and track new satellites during the critical initial orbits as far as 62,000 miles out.

Foster, who lives in Sydney and is a National Network Promotions Producer for the Australia-based Nine Network, will be sharing her story via Twitter, Instagram, Periscope, Facebook and her travel blog.

Telling stories has always been a part of the Cherokee High School alum's life.

Foster started working in the TV industry at 14, producing award-winning community service programs for Lenape District Television — an educational access channel of the Lenape Regional High School District.

After graduating high school in 1998, Foster attended American University in Washington, D.C., graduating with a bachelor's in visual media with a minor in American political science. Since 2003, she has worked in many facets of the television industry, from being an Avid video editor for Discovery Channels, NBC News and CBS News to launching Australia’s first Internet channel, HealthyMEtv.

Foster has enjoyed some major adventures in her life. In 2013, The avid blogger traveled the country in a van for 44 days.

Most recently, she lived with a tribe of former head-hunters in the Kelabit Highlands, Borneo.

She says nothing tops the time she spent with NASA.

Last year, Foster attended a social-media program designed by NASA that invites 50 bloggers from all around the world to meet scientists, astronauts and engineers to discuss all things NASA. The program, called NASASocial, gave her the opportunity to get up close to the SpaceX CRS-5 launch. She experienced first-hand what it takes to pull off a rocket launch.

"NASA is quite possibly one of my biggest passions," Foster told the Courier-Post.

"When I was accepted, I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but it has been the most rewarding experience of my life."

Foster calls the rocket launch one of the most incredible events in her life.

"You can feel the heat from the rocket before ever hearing it. And watching a launch really changes you — a lot goes through your head when you're watching the rocket rise up," she added.

"I've always been interested in anything science. I love to figure out and know how things work."

Foster believes space is the next big Wild West.

"There's a lot we don't know about it and it's romantic to think about space that way. I absolutely love how we as humans are so capable and how truly creative we really are. I keep saying to myself, 'This IS rocket science!'"

Since she had such a blast social media reporting for NASA, Foster decided to get social for ESA, giving their followers a play-by-play of her journey online.

"I’m there to report via social media, putting things in my own words. I’m not an engineer or anything science related, so I try to find the humor in everything I write and completely break it down into what everyday people can understand."

"Basically, I’ll be channeling my inner Jodie Foster in the movie 'Contact.'"

Matt Flowers; (856) 486-2913; mflowers@gannettnj.com