How’s this for a handicap: A Russian cosmonaut will strike a lightweight golf ball from outside the international space station in a promotional stunt – but he will swing one-handed and with one foot wedged in between the hand rails of a ladder.

In a routine familiar to travellers on Earth, shuttle astronauts were spending this morning packing their things, indulging in their surroundings for one last day and making sure their vehicle is ready for the ride home.

After two frustrating weeks of delays, space shuttle Atlantis and its six astronauts blasted off today on a mission to resume construction of the international space station for the first time since the Columbia disaster three and a half years ago.

Even though Tropical Storm Ernesto and a lightning strike postponed the lift off of the space shuttle, the delay of a week may give NASA managers good weather for launching Atlantis, officials said today.

Space shuttle Discovery decamped from the international space station today to begin the return trip to Earth.

A key test of a daring yet wobbly spacewalking technique that could be used someday to repair space shuttle heat shields worked well yesterday and got good reviews from two astronauts from the shuttle Discovery, which probably won’t need quick fixes, Nasa officials said.

The US shuttle Discovery finally blasted off into space today, taking British-born astronaut Piers Sellers with it.

Weather forecasts predicted a 60% chance that conditions would prohibit tomorrow’s US launch of Discovery, the first planned lift-off of a space shuttle in a year.

The delivery of a German astronaut to the international space station and the scheduled spacewalk of a British astronaut were put in doubt today as a cloudy weather forecast may delay this weekend’s launch of the space shuttle Discovery.

NASA will launch its first space shuttle in almost a year on July 1, despite recommendations against a lift-off attempt by the space agency’s chief engineer and safety offices.

DISCOVERY and its crew of seven glided safely back to Earth yesterday, ending a riveting, at times agonising, 14-day test of space shuttle safety that was shadowed by the ghosts of Columbia.

THE breath-taking climax to the US space shuttle Discovery’s first flight since the Columbia disaster in 2003 has answered many of the questions left hanging over the future of NASA.

A fuel sensor system on Discovery’s external tank passed its first test early today as Nasa began fuelling the space shuttle for the first launch attempt since the doomed Columbia flight two and a half years ago.

Marcia Dunn, Cape Canaveral

A faulty fuel-tank sensor forced Nasa to call off today’s launch of Discovery, which would have been the first shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster two-and-a-half years ago.

With a brief, but embarrassing setback behind them, Nasa crews began fuelling Discovery for lift-off later today on the first space shuttle flight in two-and-a-half years.

The Discovery space shuttle was being prepared for blast-off today, with NASA managers confident that last minute hitches would not delay tomorrow’s launch.

The first rain from Hurricane Dennis started falling on the Florida Keys today as the storm barrelled towards the Gulf of Mexico, and forecasters warned that it might score a direct hit on the island chain.

Preparations for the first space shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster were put on hold for a day while top Nasa officials decided whether to stick to a May 22 launch date.

A Russian space capsule carrying an Italian, a Russian and an American hurtled safely home to Earth from the International Space Station today, landing softly on the marshy Central Asian steppes in the early-morning darkness.

Space agency chiefs denied claims safety standards were being loosened after Nasa documents obtained by a newspaper suggested the agency was playing down the dangers posed by shuttle debris so it could continue to send astronauts into space.

NASA has set May 15 for the launch of Discovery, the first space shuttle to be sent into space since the Columbia disaster two years ago.

A former Nasa inspector has been accused of lying about inspecting crucial parts on the space shuttle Discovery before and after the Columbia disaster that killed seven astronauts and grounded the entire orbiter fleet.

The main oxygen generator for the international space station has failed, and the two astronauts on board will tap into an attached cargo ship’s air supply this weekend, Nasa said today.

The Russian Soyuz spacecraft that will return to Earth from the International Space Station this week is leaking helium, Russian space officials said today.

A Russian spacecraft carrying a new crew docked smoothly with the international space station today, as US and Russian space officials on the ground argued over the conditions for future missions.

Space shuttles will not fly again until next year, and when one does lift off on the first post-Columbia mission, another will be on standby for a potential rescue mission.

Space shuttles will not fly again until next year, and when the first one does lift off, an Atlantis craft will be on standby for a potential rescue mission.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush urged the US “forward into the universe” last night, outlining a costly new effort to return Americans to the moon as early as 2015 and use it as a way-station to Mars and beyond.

The leak which caused air pressure to drop on the International Space Station was caused by the malfunction of a valve that disposes of extra pressure, Russian space officials said today.

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying British-born astronaut Michael Foale and two others blasted off today for the International Space Station from the Russian space programme’s cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Nasa’s first shuttle mission since the Columbia disaster would be a “test flight”, with astronauts inspecting their ship and practising repair techniques, the space agency announced tonight.

The Columbia shuttle disaster investigation board did not go far enough in its recommended safety changes, one of the investigators has said.

A computer software error likely sent a Russian spacecraft into a rare ballistic descent that subjected the three men on board to chest-crushing gravity loads that made it hard to breathe, space experts said today.

Two American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut on the space station finished packing tonight and crammed into a tiny Soyuz capsule to return to Earth.

AN American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut boarded a space station 250 miles above earth yesterday, relieving a three-man crew forced to stay an extra two months in space as a result of the US Columbia tragedy.

Russia’s Soyuz TMA-2 space capsule today successfully docked with the international space station and transferred US astronaut Edward Lu and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko.

China’s planned space probe to fly to the moon and a mission could be ready to go within three years, an official with the programme said today.

DISCLOSED e-mails inside NASA showed senior engineers worried a day before the Columbia disaster that the shuttle’s left wing might burn off and cause the deaths of the crew, a scenario remarkably similar to the one investigators believe actually occurred.

Confined to their orbiting capsule at least until April in the wake of the Columbia accident, the three men aboard the international space station are putting a brave face on their predicament.

The woman set to command the next space shuttle mission says she cannot wait for her lift-off orders, despite the Columbia disaster.

NASA was warned nine years ago that the space shuttle could fail catastrophically if debris hit the vulnerable underside of its wings during lift-off the very scenario that may have brought down Columbia.

The three crew members at the International Space Station were today said to be grieving after they were told about the Columbia disaster by a Nasa official.

A RUSSIAN cargo rocket carrying food and fuel blasted off for the International Space Station yesterday, a day after the US shuttle Columbia broke, killing seven astronauts.