When is a Tweet not a Tweet

Astronaut Mike Massimino, in the space shuttle Atlantis, is sending tweeting on Twitter from space. Or is he?

"Astro_Mike", as he is known on Twitter, wrote "As I closed my eyes to sleep last night I thought, 'These eyes have seen some beautiful sights today' ". More than 300,000 followers (growing exponentially every hour) are hooked. The media is hooked.

But others argue that he's really sending messages from the on-board computer to an assistant on earth who is posting the tweets for him.

Does this count as "Tweets from Space?" It sure is close, and fascinating, and as close as I'll ever get to experiencing space.