Two astronauts who were teaching maths and science to middle school students just five years ago went on a spacewalk together, but could not free a jammed equipment shelf no matter how hard they tried.

Nasa, confronted again with orbiting junk, ordered the astronauts aboard the linked space station and shuttle Discovery to move out of the path of a piece of debris.

Space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven have left the international space station, ending a 12-day visit to give the orbiting complex better living quarters for bigger crews.

Space shuttle Atlantis and its astronauts delivered a sparkling new lab to the international space station, but had to delay installing it by a day because of a crew member’s medical problem.

Nasa cleared Endeavour today for its return to Earth, bringing the space shuttle home a day early because of hurricane worries that later evaporated.

THE crew of the US shuttle Discovery were last night examining the vessel for any signs of damage.

Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery were ready to put on the brakes today and begin descending from orbit with hopes of having their feet back on the ground before daybreak.

After orbiting the Earth for 13 days, astronauts aboard space shuttle Discovery have been told to circle the planet once more early today as Nasa delayed their landing because of bad weather in Florida.

After circling the Earth for 13 days, astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery powered up their spacecraft early today and awaited word from Mission Control to fire their braking rockets and head for home.

With a gentle tug of his gloved right hand, Discovery astronaut Stephen Robinson removed two pieces of filler material from the shuttle’s underside in an unprecedented space repair job that drew a big sigh of relief from NASA.

SHORT strips of filler material dangling from Discovery’s belly had NASA scrambling yesterday to determine whether they might endanger the space shuttle during re-entry.

DISCOVERY’S astronauts started to inspect their spaceship for launch damage yesterday, delicately operating a 100-foot movable arm with lasers and a camera mounted on its tip.

Just two days before Columbia’s mysterious break-up during its fiery descent, a safety engineer warned by e-mail about risks of “catastrophic” failures from extreme heat causing the shuttle’s tyres to burst inside the spacecraft, Nasa has disclosed.

Astronauts on board the Atlantis shuttle were due to take a space walk today to help attach a temporary docking port to the Alpha space station’s new science laboratory.