For years scientists had to beg for access to the space shuttle to conduct microgravity research, until a well-timed salmonella discovery helped cinch a spot for Spacehab Inc. on all but one of the shuttle's remaining scheduled flights.

"The timing couldn't have been better," Spacehab President Jim Royston said June 16, two days after Space Shuttle Discovery returned from the international space station with test tubes of the salmonella bacteria.

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NASA told a Senate panel on Monday that it anticipates losing 3,000 to 4,000 jobs at its launching site once the space shuttles stop flying in two more years, about half the cutback initially reported.

Although as many as 6,000 to 7,000 shuttle jobs will be eliminated at Kennedy Space Center, about 3,000 positions will open up in the new exploration program, said NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. Those jobs will be created to build and fly new spaceships to the International Space Station and, ultimately, to the moon.

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