Cape Canaveral, Florida - The space shuttle Columbia blasted off yesterday after replacing a faulty communications system, NASA officials said. The shuttle crew of seven astronauts and an assortment of 2,000 of creatures are to serve as test subjects for a £99 million research programme to understand how space travel affects the nervous system.
Two cosmonauts left Russia's Mir orbital station yesterday on their fourth space walk this month to carry out repair work, Mission Control said in Moscow.