Nasa has continued fuelling space shuttle Atlantis for its final lift-off today even though stormy weather threatened to delay the launch.

Nasa is investigating how a bag of cocaine got into the hangar that houses space shuttle Discovery at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

Nasa called off the launch of space shuttle Discovery because of a bad fuel valve.

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.

After landing in their capsule way off-course in an alarming end to their return from the international space station, the three-man Russian-American crew opened the hatch today and emerged in good health, officials at Russian Mission control said.