The crew of the international space station have been alarmed by a possible collision with space debris, but Russian space officials said today the men were safe and there was no immediate sign of any damage.

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying British-born astronaut Michael Foale and two others blasted off today for the International Space Station from the Russian space programme’s cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

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.

Russian space station Mir today crashed into the southern Pacific Ocean, finally ending its 15 years in orbit above the earth.