It will be a sad day indeed when Tom Cruise grows too old to sprint across our screens, but that day, if Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (12A) is any indication, will be a long time coming.

More than ever, sport in the US is becoming intertwined with politics and societal behaviour, with the NFL especially blinded by the glare of public opinion.

Tiny pieces of the Virgin Galactic experimental spaceship that broke up in flight have been found 35 miles from the main wreckage area, it emerged.

The Virgin Galactic crash in California will lead to a “a major delay” to Richard Branson’s attempt to take tourists into space, an astrophysicist said today.

A winged spaceship designed to take tourists on excursions beyond Earth’s atmosphere exploded during a test flight over the Mojave Desert, killing a pilot.

One pilot died and another was seriously injured after a rocket belonging to billionaire Richard Branson’s space tourism venture crashed during a test flight, US authorities said.

One pilot has died and another has suffered “major injury” after Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo crashed during a test flight, Californian authorities said.

The organisers of the KLM Open in the Netherlands this weekend are offering a very different prize for getting a hole-in-one - a trip into space.

Businessman Richard Branson has reiterated his claim that the first Virgin Galactic flight into space will take place later this year.

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Rihanna is set to spend $750,000 on a space flight, including $250,000 for a bodygaurd.

ENGLAND:

Virgin Galactic says it has successfully conducted a second rocket-powered, supersonic test flight of the passenger spaceship it is developing.

A man died and another was in hospital in a serious condition as a heatwave blistered parts of the US.

In a giant leap from more than 24 miles (38.6km) up, a daredevil skydiver shattered the sound barrier while making the highest jump ever – a tumbling, death-defying plunge from a balloon to a safe landing in the New Mexico desert.

The space shuttle Endeavour has landed in California where it will spend its retirement in a Los Angeles museum.

An unmanned spacecraft bankrolled by Amazon.com supremo Jeff Bezos failed during a test flight, it has emerged.

The Cat’s Table: A Novel. Michael OndaatjeJonathan Cape, £16.99. Kindel $3.22

IT WAS supposed to be a beautiful day.

The US government has approved a 1,000-megawatt solar project on land in southern California, the largest planned on publicly-owned lands.

THE Apprentice’s Bill Cullen has reasserted his claim to be the first Irishman in orbit after comments from another Irish businessman suggested he could be beaten to the spacecraft door.

Virgin Galactic’s space tourism jet has suffered a landing gear problem during a test flight in California’s Mojave Desert.

AUTHORITIES yesterday said the eight dead in a grisly crash at an off-road race in the California desert include three men from the San Diego area and a woman from Las Vegas.

A vehicle ploughed into a crowd at a popular off-road race in the Southern California desert, killing eight people and leaving 12 wounded.

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A SPACECRAFT designed to rocket wealthy tourists into space as early as 2011 was unveiled yesterday in what backers of the venture hope will signal a new era in aviation history.

Space shuttle Discovery and its seven astronauts took a cross-country detour and landed safely in California after stormy weather prevented them from returning home to Florida for the second day in a row.

NTR’s transformation into a green energy company took a major step forward yesterday when its solar project development company, Tessera Solar North America, announced a 20-year power purchase agreement with CPS Energy to develop a 27 megawatt solar project in Texas.

SPACE Shuttle Atlantis and its crew of seven has returned to Earth, ending their exalted Hubble Space Telescope repair mission in California after stormy weather prevented a return to NASA’s Florida base.

One of the US Air Force’s top-of-the-line F-22 fighter jets crashed in the high desert of Southern California, killing a test pilot for prime contractor Lockheed Martin Corp.

Barack Obama literally came out swinging as he took centre stage at a Las Vegas baseball stadium in a bid to woo voters in the key battleground state of Nevada.

AEROSPACE engineers have been holed up in a Mojave Desert hangar for four years, fashioning a commercial spaceship to loft rich tourists some 100km above Earth.

NTR, the former West Link operator, has invested €63 million in a strategic solar energy project in the US.

A huge explosion killed two workers and critically injured four others at a Mojave Desert airport site used by a pioneering aerospace company linked to Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space tourism business.

Space shuttle Atlantis’ seven astronauts reunited with their families in Texas last night, a day after the space shuttle capped a two-week mission with a perfect landing in the Mojave Desert in California.

Space shuttle Atlantis and its seven astronauts took a detour across the US and landed safely in California, ending a two-week mission of construction on the international space station.

TRAVELLERS fed up with congested roads and packed public transport were offered a glimpse yesterday of an out-of-this-world experience — the prospect of the first tourist spaceship.

NASA scrubbed space shuttle Discovery’s first landing plan tonight because of rain at Kennedy Space Center and was considering ordering a New Mexico landing - something it has done only once before.

British entrepreneur Richard Branson has unveiled an interior mock-up of the suborbital spaceship that his company will use to take paying passengers on flights into space.

Designer Philippe Starck, former soap star Victoria Principal and Superman Returns director Bryan Singer have booked their flights for tourist trips in outer space, the company selling the galactic voyages said today.

A huge asteroid will have a close encounter with Earth this weekend, but astronomers say there is no danger of an impact.

The space shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven have touched down safely at Edwards air base in California's Mojave Desert.