Space shuttles will not fly again until next year, and when the first one does lift off, an Atlantis craft will be on standby for a potential rescue mission.

THE clamour over a plan to abandon the Hubble Space Telescope and along with it, the most striking images of the universe ever seen has been so loud that NASA’s chief says the decision will be reviewed.

Nasa is cancelling all space shuttle servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope, a decision that, in effect, will cause the powerful observatory to slowly degrade and eventually become useless, officials said tonight.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush urged the US “forward into the universe” last night, outlining a costly new effort to return Americans to the moon as early as 2015 and use it as a way-station to Mars and beyond.

US President George W Bush is set to announce plans for the first manned mission to Mars.

If Nasa returns astronauts to the moon and then takes aim at Mars, the US space agency will have to go back to the drawing board to get the job done.

NASA’s Spirit rover yielded the sharpest picture ever taken of the surface of Mars, revealing in breathtaking detail a completely rust-coloured landscape strewn with rocks.

UK scientists were forced to revise their plans to track down the missing Beagle 2 today – just as America celebrated the Nasa probe’s successful landing on Mars.

The Columbia shuttle disaster investigation board did not go far enough in its recommended safety changes, one of the investigators has said.

Today’s report into the decisions that led to Nasa’s Columbia shuttle disaster will not pull any punches, officials warned.

US President George W Bush led thousands of grieving space workers and their families, friends and neighbours in a solemn farewell yesterday to the seven Columbia astronauts.

US President George W. Bush led thousands of grieving space workers and their families, friends, neighbours in a solemn farewell today to the seven Columbia astronauts.

HOUSTON has a Brian O’Connell and a Sean O’Keefe. It even has a Michael Collins, once known as “the loneliest man in space” for staying in orbit during the Apollo 11 moon landing.

NASA yesterday vowed to “leave absolutely no stone unturned” in an exhaustive investigation into why the space shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board.

Space shuttle Columbia broke apart in flames over Texas today, killing all seven astronauts just 16 minutes before they were supposed to land in Cape Canaveral, Florida.