US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has returned home to her astronaut husband, leaving behind a Houston hospital where she began to rebuild her life after a gunman shot her in the head five months ago.

A woman who tried to sell a rare hunk of moon rock for $1.7m (€1.2m) was detained when her prospective customer turned out to be an undercover Nasa investigator, officials said.

NASA yesterday delayed the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour at least until the end of the week as work continues to resolve an electronics problem that scuttled Friday’s launch attempt, officials said.

The astronaut husband of wounded US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords said that she wants to be at his shuttle launch next month.

The astronaut husband of shot US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords said she would embrace his decision to rocket into space in two months – and he expects her to be well enough to attend the launch.

The astronaut husband of wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has decided to go ahead with his shuttle space flight in April.

New evidence has made it more likely that remnants of Martian microbes were transported to Earth in meteorite, it was revealed today.

Astronaut Neil Armstrong's famous moon-landing transmission "that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" was a slip of the tongue, according to new research.

Rescue crews in the US navigated debris-strewn streets to reach people still stuck in some of the thousands of homes flooded by Hurricane Ike, while authorities in the fourth-largest US city, imposed a curfew and warned residents that it would be weeks before Houston is fully back up and running.

Hurricane Ike ravaged south-east Texas early today, battering the coast with driving rain and ferocious wind gusts as residents who decided too late they should have heeded calls to evacuate made futile calls for rescue.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Texas were today ordered to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Ike.

Nasa has released more than 200 pages of emails related to the bizarre case of an astronaut accused of trying to kidnap her romantic rival.

When former US schoolteacher Barbara Morgan leaves Earth on a space shuttle next week, she hopes her students back in Idaho learn a lesson from her 22-year wait to get into orbit: perseverance and patience.

America’s space agency has been rocked by reports of astronauts drunk before flying and a NASA worker sabotaging a computer bound for the international space station.

The man who shot dead a fellow Nasa worker before turning the gun on himself was undergoing a job review for poor performance and feared being sacked.

The man who shot and killed another NASA worker before turning the gun on himself was undergoing a job review for poor performance and feared being fired, officials said tonight.

Nasa is concentrating on a review of its security procedures as officials try to figure out today how a contract worker smuggled a handgun into the Johnson Space Centre, where he killed another employee and himself.

The family of university campus killer Cho Seung-Hui apologised for the tragedy, saying they “never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence”.

A 60-year-old Nasa contract worker took a handgun inside an office building at the Johnson Space Centre and shot dead a hostage before killing himself.

A former Nasa flight surgeon said today the woman astronaut accused of trying to kidnap and murder a love rival had suffered “mental anguish”.

A SPACE capsule carrying the first comet dust samples to Earth parachuted to a pre-dawn landing in the Utah desert in the US yesterday, drawing cheers from elated scientists.

A space capsule ferrying the first comet dust samples to Earth parachuted on to a remote stretch of desert before dawn today, drawing cheers from elated scientists.

From the Johnson Space Centre in Texas to Capitol Hill in Washington DC, the relief was obvious when space shuttle Discovery safely returned to terra firma.

A man convicted of trying to sell moon rocks stolen from Nasa over the Internet has been jailed for nearly six years in Florida.

The new bride blew the groom a kiss and he blew one back – from about 240 miles away.

The woman set to command the next space shuttle mission says she cannot wait for her lift-off orders, despite the Columbia disaster.

NASA was warned nine years ago that the space shuttle could fail catastrophically if debris hit the vulnerable underside of its wings during lift-off the very scenario that may have brought down Columbia.

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.

The remains of all seven astronauts aboard the Columbia have been found, Nasa said today, as the investigation continued into what caused the shuttle to disintegrate.

’N Sync singer Lance Bass has been asked to leave Russia’s cosmonaut training programme and will not be the world’s third space tourist, a Russian space official said today.

Three student workers and another man have been charged with stealing a safe full of moon rocks and meteorites.

Preparations are underway to send the world's second space tourist into orbit.