Discovery docks with the International Space Station, 13 people in space at the same time again

Great, 13 people in space all at the same time again. As I've written before, part of the reason why many lack an emotional attachment to space is because there simply have not been enough people there at the same time to create an interesting dynamic between them, and though nobody knows what the minimum number would be, 13 is still a pretty full house compared to the ISS before. For most of its history it got by with a crew of three, and since being upgraded to six each Shuttle flight has brought it temporarily up to 13.

Quite a few astronauts are using Twitter on this flight as well, and one of them is writing in both English and Spanish. The Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang is also part of the crew, making this his second mission.

This mission is also bringing aboard quite a bit of new equipment, including the COLBERT treadmill.