Historic pictures from Mars

A NASA spacecraft has sent back the first historic pictures of an unexplored region of Mars.

The Mars Phoenix lander touched down in the far north of the Red Planet, after a 680 million-km (423 million-mile) journey from Earth. The probe is equipped with a robotic arm to dig for water-ice thought to be buried beneath the surface.

It will begin examining the site for evidence of the building blocks of life in the next few days. A signal confirming the lander had reached the surface was received at 2353 GMT on 25 May (1953 EDT; 0053 BST on 26 May).

Engineers and scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California clapped and cheered when the landing signal came through. "Phoenix has landed - welcome to the northern plain of Mars," a flight controller announced. The final seven minutes of the probe's 10-month journey to Mars were regarded as the hardest part of the mission.

Endeavour in Florida

The US space shuttle Endeavour has landed successfully in Florida after the longest mission of its kind to the International Space Station.

Endeavour's descent was slightly delayed by poor weather at the Kennedy Space Center. During their 16-day mission, the space shuttle's crew installed the first part of a Japanese research laboratory and assembled a Canadian robot.

The robot will carry out maintenance on the exterior of the space station.