This was another great week for space enthusiasts, with promise of more to follow. Well, more that is for all but one such I suppose, as private space pioneer Richard Garriott spends his final hours flying in orbit preparing for a (potentially) seasonally scary return home. Garriott is set to return by week's end with that other multigenerational space traveler, Commander Sergei Volkov and fellow Expedition 17 Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko. (Greg Chamitoff is being left behind with Expedition 18 since he didn't finish his chess game in time against the third graders.)

This undocking and de-orbit draws attention greater than usual, since Soyuz has yet to redeem itself after the recent alarming re-entries. ("Alarming" relative to its superior safety record, that is.). An answer of sorts seems to be accepted regarding the recently analyzed explosive bolt issue ("the most probable cause … the delta potential between the plasma environment, the environment around space station, and the space station itself"). If indeed it was an electrical grounding problem then it should provide no more problems, and everyone on both ends of the fiery trip will breathe a little easier. In whatever way it might help though to employ human superstition, good luck on your return gentlemen.

Update on the shuttle shuffle: Atlantis is safely stowed back in the VAB, only a few external tank scuffs the worse for wear, its emptied cargo bay awaiting whatever new package is sent up to repair finicky Hubble. The space telescope balked from a flawless reboot to its back-up control side, requiring engineers to determine to what extent another restart might represent risk. Meanwhile stand-by Endeavour is set to "roll-around" from Pad B to Pad A tomorrow, preparing for her mission to service ISS next month.

Space fans around the planet salute yesterday's launch of Chandrayaan, the Indian lunar probe. Chandrayaan ("moon craft") achieved its desired, mildly eccentric earth orbit successfully, to begin a fifteen-day loopty-loop journey to the moon for two years of study. It is hoped the probe will circle in a rare 100km polar orbit, compiling data to construct a better three-dimensional atlas of the lunar surface and mapping its distribution of elements and minerals. (One notes NASA has two lunar mapping instruments of its own aboard Chandrayaan.) Plans also include dropping a sub-probe to impact the surface with the Indian flag painted on its side. Not to (insert tasty, spicy food joke here), but it's great yet another nation joins the global club capable of the challenge of lunar transit.