Space agency Nasa has reacted angrily to a new Beyoncé song that features an audio sample recorded just after the Challenger shuttle exploded on take-off in 1986, killing all seven crew members.

Nasa will try to launch Discovery on the first space shuttle mission in more than two years next Tuesday, and may press ahead with lift-off even if there’s a repeat of the fuel gauge problem that halted last week’s countdown.

Johnson Space Centre staff in Houston marked the 35th anniversary of the first manned lunar landing with a vintage car parade and proud reflections of a deed that dazzled the world.

THE destruction of the space shuttle Columbia and the death of its seven astronauts were caused by a culture of 'self-protection' at NASA, investigators said yesterday.

A computer model that convinced Nasa the Columbia astronauts were in no danger from damage done to the shuttle by a piece of falling debris was outdated and lacked the right information, accident investigators said.