Atlantis and its crew of seven astronauts are scheduled to be back home on Thursday, but forecasters predict bad weather so the landing maybe delayed.

Atlantis astronauts have successfully installed solar arrays, they have repaired the Russian computer, and now they are coming back to the earth, hopefully.

Initially Atlantis' Mission was scheduled for eleven days, but two more days were added, because astronauts needed spacewalks.

While Atlantis were unfurling two new solar arrays at international space station, a Russian navigation computer hang up and caused a mass of problems to the crew.

Shuttle Atlantis successfully launched on Friday at 7:38 p.m. Eastern time to continue the building of International Space Station. Its flame brightened clear evening sky and left dense columns of smoke.

NASA resolved problems of the lines connecting external fuel tank to Atlantis on Wednesday. Now the first space shuttle is getting ready for the launch on Friday at 6:38 p.m. CDT. Forecasters predicted 70 percent probability of good weather.

Europe will in future make more use of space activities in order to reach its political objectives. For this purpose, 29 European countries adopted on May 22nd a resolution on the European Space Policy on the occasion of the 4th Space Council.

A number of Asian nations are not content with being economic powerhouses - they have become serious contenders in the race to control space. From VOA's Asia News Center in Hong Kong, Claudia Blume reports that Japan, China and India are the main contenders in Asia's race to the stars.

Scientists working with the European Science Foundation (ESF) are putting the finishing touches to an ambitious programme of research for the exploration of the Moon and Mars. They expect to publish their proposals in May.

Using measurements of the four ESA's Cluster satellites, a study published this week in Nature Physics shows pioneering experimental evidence of magnetic reconnection also in turbulent 'plasma' around Earth.

The Himalaya, the "Roof of the World", source of the seven largest rivers of Asia are, like other mountain chains, suffering the effects of global warming. To assess the extent of melting of its 33 000 km2 of glaciers, scientists have been using a process they have been pioneering for some years. Satellite-imagery derived glacier surface topographies obtained at intervals of a few years were adjusted and compared.