Japan’s space lab

A team of astronauts have attached a $1bn Japanese laboratory to the International Space Station (ISS).

The 16-tonne Kibo lab was delivered by the shuttle Discovery. It will be the station's biggest room, for the study of biomedicine and material sciences.

Astronauts Akihiko Hoshide and Karen Nyberg maneuvered Kibo into place, using the space station's robotic arm. The lab was anchored after two crew members had made preparations during a spacewalk lasting more than six hours.

Discovery docked at the ISS on Monday after a two-day voyage. As well as the Japanese laboratory, the shuttle has also brought a pump to unblock the station's toilet, which broke nearly two weeks ago. The crew has been performing manual flushes several times a day.

Soyuz returning to Earth

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft is due to return to Earth within hours after successfully undocking from the International Space Station (ISS).

The Expedition 16 crew includes South Korea's first astronaut, 29-year-old Yi So-yeon, who spent about 11 days at the station conducting scientific tests. Also on board are Yuri Malenchenko from Russia and Peggy Whitson from the US. The landing capsule of the Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft is due to land in the Kazakh steppe at about 0830 GMT.

Yuri back in space! Well not the ...original Yuri but still a Yuri!!!

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.

Easter walk on space

Astronauts from space shuttle Endeavour have stored a 50ft (15m) inspection pole at the International Space Station (ISS) for use by the next shuttle. The astronauts attached the pole during a fifth and final spacewalk before they return to earth on Wednesday.

Discovery, which is due to fly to the space station in May, will not have space to carry its own pole alongside the Kibo laboratory. The laser-tipped pole is used to inspect the ship for damage.

Its use has become standard procedure since the Columbia accident in 2003. Endeavour astronauts Michael Foreman and Robert Behnken spent six hours on Saturday's walk. After fixing the pole, the astronauts inspected a jammed rotating joint and hung a science experiment to Europe's Colombus lab.

The Endeavour astronauts have already tested a heat-shield tile-repair kit and installed the new Japanese Logistics Module - a storage facility for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory.

Mars is covered in …table salt

I was ready to start joking now about it, but then I remembered how many books I have read in my youth with life on Mars – not to mention Bowie’s song – and I think it is so weird. After going on for so many years, over a century, that there is no life on Mars now we are coming out with oceans, table salt and who knows what else in the next few years.

Oddly most of these science fiction books were talking about a doomed civilization in its edges. But always a glorious civilization, an artistic civilization avoiding the mistakes we are doing on earth. Most likely in the end scientists will find some microbes or minor organisms but is always fascinating the aspect of life in another planet, especially when this planet is the red planet!

Saturn’s moon ocean

It seems that the space has some surprises lately for us, another sign of life – please don’t let your mind look for E.T. – in Saturn this time, just in our neighborhood.

Saturn's moon Titan may have a deep, hidden ocean, according to data published in the journal Science.

Radar images from the Cassini-Huygens mission reinforce predictions that a reservoir of liquid water exists beneath the thick crust of ice. If confirmed, it would mean that Titan has two of the key components for life - water and organic molecules.

Currently, three other Solar System objects are suspected of having deep oceans: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of the US space agency (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI).

More and more coming the proves that earth is not the only planet with life in the universe. Still the big question remains, is earth the only planet with intelligent life?