Starting this week’s PICSPAM! off with something old: medieval astronomy lecture notes, from a manuscript written at Melk Abbey in 1490.

The gossip of the week at NASA has been over their ISS Node-3 naming contest, in which Stephen Colbert encouraged his viewers to saturate the poll with a write-in of “Colbert”… which they DID indeed do… which won by a landslide, to NASA’s chagrin. Fortunately, this lovely addition to the Space Station bears the name “Tranquility” — appropriate given the view:

They did give Mr. Colbert a gimme, however, in that he is now an official acronym, as well as a new treadmill:

Finally, here’s a suite of images from the Soyuz TMA-13 launch last October; incredible power and color, go to the aforementioned link to download them in ENORMOVISION.

Did I say PICSPAM in the title? Yes… yes, I believe I did.

I did say this was picspam. Emphasis on SPAM.