Astronaut may share his thoughts on the humbling wonder of space and the glory of seeing the Earth from orbit, in less than 140 characters

In what is surely to be a first in manned spaceflight, Astronaut Mike Massimino says he may attempt to communicate from space with people back on earth.

Well, maybe not the first time that someone has communicated, but the first time someone has communicated directly with civilians without going through Mission Control.

Okay, granted, there were a few Ham Radio astronauts before him, and yes, dozens of others have sent emails and filed web reports and otherwise used the internet before while in orbit, but still.

This is one small step for Twitter, one giant leap for jackasses.

What Mike should do is just change his Facebook status to "circling," and leave it at that.

However, as I am a big space flight supporter and I think all astronauts are by default extremely awesome, I am prepared to give Mike a pass if he tweets just once: "Day 5: still smells like stale farts and sweaty Russians."