As the countdown towards a launch of Atlantis on the first space shuttle flight of the year was set to begin, the threat of a strike by several hundred workers at the US Kennedy Space Centre loomed.

A union representing 570 space shuttle programme workers at the Kennedy Space Centre have voted to strike, less than a week before the planned launch of Atlantis.

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.