As part of NASA’s plan to revisit the Moon, Marshall Space Flight Center Engineers oversaw the freefall test of a 50,000-pound simulated rocket booster on the Arizona desert by U.S. Air Force test pilots. The Ares booster recovery parachute system successfully stopped the jettisoned booster from crashing. Testing for all components will continue throughout 2009, each with greater payload weight.

China's new generation of carrier rocket, the Long March 5, with a maximum payload capacity of 25 tons, will come into use in 2014, said an official with the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology on Sunday.

Kazakhstan wants the right to ban rocket launches from its Baikonur space center, which Russia rents, in situations where the Kazakh president is located near the launch, the prime minister said.

An unmanned Russian rocket has crashed after blasting off from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan. RFE/RL's Kazakh Service correspondent in Almaty, Danabek Bimenov, reports that no one was injured in the incident early today, which officials said was caused by an engine malfunction.

A Russian Proton-M booster rocket carrying a Japanese communications satellite exploded shortly after lift-off early Thursday, a space agency spokesman said. - RIA Novosti