Twenty-First Century Fox shares jumped in US trading and Sky shares rose in London after sources said both Comcast and Verizon Communications were also interested in buying parts of its studio and TV operations.

NASA is charged with spotting most of the asteroids that pose a threat to Earth, but doesn’t have the money to complete the job.

Astronauts today gave the space shuttle a four-and-a-half hour inspection using cameras on the orbiter’s robotic arm early to see if its heat shield was damaged by a mysterious object that apparently floated off the spacecraft.

NASA hopes to return astronauts to the moon by 2018, nearly a half-century after men last walked the lunar surface, by using a distinctly retro combination of space shuttle and Apollo rocket parts.