ANOUSHEH Ansari, the world’s first female paying space tourist, returned to Earth yesterday after 11 days in space capped by the bone-jarring journey home from the international space station.

A TELECOMS entrepreneur blasted off yesterday on a Russian rocket bound for the international space station, achieving her dream of becoming the world’s first paying female space tourist.

A heating problem in a critical water drainage line loomed over today’s planned launch of the US space shuttle Atlantis, threatening again to delay a British born man’s bid to fly into space.