Astronaut Tweeting From Space!

24 of the Fourth Month 5769

Check out Astronaut Mark Polansky's Twitter Page. He already has almost 35,000 followers, and you can see why from his last "tweet" (entry):

"Hope next tweet is from orbit. We'll see."
(Wednesday, about 2:00 PM EDT)

Now, if you're like me, and want to get a tweet from space, then you'll follow Mark, too.

Let's hope Mark and the rest of the crew of the USS Endeavour make it back to Earth safely, after their mission. It appears that the space shuttle incurred some damage during lift off.

(FoxNews.com) CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — Space shuttle Endeavour rocketed toward the international space station Thursday as engineers on Earth pored over launch pictures that showed debris breaking off the fuel tank and striking the craft.

Mission Control told the astronauts late Wednesday that the damage looked less extensive at first glance than what occurred on the last shuttle flight, but it will take days to sort through available data to reach a conclusion.

The astronauts planned a Thursday afternoon inspection of their ship's thermal shielding, using a 100-foot laser-tipped boom. The procedure has been standard since shuttle flights resumed after the Columbia accident.

Update: Just received "tweet" from space...

From orbit: This was so worth the wait. What a spectacular launch. Earth is breathtaking. Time for bed now.
(Thursday, 4:27 PM EDT)