The crew of the International Space Station will get a go-ahead next week to perform spacewalking inspections as part of a probe into back-to-back ballistic re-entries by Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Two veteran cosmonauts, meanwhile, say the type of steep trajectories flown by consecutive Soyuz crews are safe-but-rocky rides back to Earth.

"Imagine you drive a luxury car with fine shock absorbers, not feeling the road at all," said Pavel Vinogradov, who served on Russia's Mir space station and commanded an expedition to the new outpost.

http://www.space.com/news/ft-080630-soyuz-rocky-ri

American astronaut Garrett Reisman is getting reacquainted with gravity and baseball as he readjusts to life on Earth after three months living in space.

Reisman, 40, is looking forward seeing his beloved New York Yankees play the Boston Red Sox in New York on Sunday, just over three weeks after returning on Earth following his 95-day trek to the International Space Station (ISS).

"I'm looking forward to coming back and having a real slice of pizza, and seeing my friends and family in New Jersey and New York," said Reisman, a Parsippany, N.J.-native, in a recent televised interview.

h

In ham radio space related news, word that special event station R45VT is on the air. This, to commemorate the 45th Anniversary of Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova becoming the first woman in space.

Tereshkova flew to orbit on June 16th 1963 as pilot onboard Vostok 6. Her call sign during the flight was Chaika. She spent 71 hours in space orbiting the Earth 48 times.

Since that time women have made a significant contribution to space exploration and many of them have been licenced Radio Amateurs. A few of the many notable women space explorers since Valentina Tereshkova include American Sally Ride and the United Kingdom's Helen Sharman to mention only a few.

Veteran space shuttle astronaut Barbara R. Morgan will leave NASA in August to become an educator at Idaho's Boise State University.

NASA's first educator astronaut, Morgan logged more than 305 hours in space aboard shuttle Endeavour's STS-118 assembly mission to the International Space Station in August 2007. She operated the shuttle and station robotic arms to install hardware, inspect the orbiter and support spacewalks. Morgan also served as loadmaster for the transfer of supplies between the shuttle and station, taught lessons from space to schoolchildren on Earth and served on the flight deck during re-entry and landing.

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.

http://www.space.com/news/ap-080623-nasa-shuttle-transition.html

NASA astronaut Gregory Chamitoff is settling into life aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and gearing up for the long orbital haul.

Chamitoff, 45, is newest member of the station's three-man Expedition 17 crew, where he'll serve the dual role of flight engineer and NASA's science officer for the next six months of his long-duration spaceflight.

"It's amazing to be up here, but what makes it meaningful are our family and friends back there," Chamitoff said of Earth this week in a televised interview.

A native of Montreal, Canada, Chamitoff is a planetary geologist and engineer by training and grew up in San Jose, Calif. He is married and father to three-year-old fraternal twins, and is making his first career spaceflight on Expedition 17.

Two space tourism firms hoping to give fare-paying customers the rides of their lives are set to take some major steps forward in coming months.

On July 28, the suborbital tourism firm Virgin Galactic will unveil the first WhiteKnightTwo mothership for its planned fleet of SpaceShipTwo spaceliners designed by aerospace veteran Burt Rutan and his company Scaled Composites. Meanwhile, the Virginia-based company Space Adventures is preparing to launch its sixth paying customer on a $30 million trek to the International Space Station on Oct.12, with two more orbital hopefuls already waiting in the wings.

Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center will be opened to journalists to allow viewing of a site damaged during the May 31 launch of space shuttle Discovery. Reporters will have the opportunity to ask questions about ongoing repair work. The media tour will take place Monday, June 16, at 10 a.m. EDT.

The damage occurred to an area of the pad known as the flame trench. Based on analysis to date, repairs are expected to be completed in time for the next shuttle launch. Atlantis' STS-125 mission to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is targeted for Oct. 8.

During Monday's event, Ed Mango, deputy director of the shuttle program's launch vehicle processing, and Perry Becker, who is leading the launch pad engineering investigation team, will be available for interviews.

WASHINGTON -- NASA will honor the late astronaut John "Jack" L. Swigert, Jr., with the presentation of an Ambassador of Exploration Award for his involvement in the U.S. space program. During a ceremony with Apollo 13 spacecraft commander James Lovell on Friday, May 23, Swigert's sister Virginia will accept the award at and present it for display to the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum in Denver, Colo. The award presentation will highlight the opening of the museum's new exhibit on Colorado's Astronauts.

NASA is giving the Ambassador of Exploration Award to the first generation of explorers in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs for realizing America's goal of going to the moon. The award is a moon rock encased in Lucite and mounted for public display. The rock is part of the 842 pounds of lunar samples collected during the six Apollo expeditions from 1969 to 1972.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A science official says South Korea's first astronaut has left a hospital after recovering from neck and back pain apparently caused by her Russian spacecraft's unexpectedly steep descent to Earth last month.

Science Ministry official Jung Kyung-taek said Yi So-yeon was released Wednesday from a military-run hospital because her pains have almost stopped. She was hospitalized April 29.

http://www.space.com/news/ap-080514-south-korean-astronaut-hospital.html