Three astronauts returned safely to Earth from the International Space Station early Saturday, aboard a Russian capsule which landed on the freezing Kazakhstan steppe, mission control said.

Three astronauts returned safely to Earth from the International Space Station early Saturday, aboard a Russian capsule which landed on the freezing Kazakhstan steppe, mission control said.

The return to earth of two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut from the International Space Station was delayed Friday due to harsh conditions at the Kazakhstan landing site, the Russian space agency said.

With the ringing of a ceremonial bell in space to mark a crew change, astronaut Chris Hadfield became the first Canadian to assume command of the International Space Station on Wednesday.

Russia will send a female cosmonaut into space for the first time in two decades next year, an official at the space training centre said Wednesday.

A privately-owned unmanned US space capsule docked Sunday at the International Space Station bringing food, scientific materials and crucial equipment to the space outpost.

A privately-owned unmanned US space capsule neared the International Space Station early Sunday, preparing to dock to deliver food, scientific materials and other crucial equipment.

SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule will dock Sunday with the International Space Station on a mission to deliver food, scientific experiments and other cargo, NASA said.

SpaceX said it was "optimistic" Friday after a thruster outage delayed the latest resupply mission of its unmanned Dragon capsule en route to the International Space Station.

The unmanned Dragon capsule launched on Friday by US firm SpaceX encountered problems en route to the space station when three of its four thrusters failed to fire up, the company said.

Private space firm SpaceX launched its Falcon-9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Friday, carrying a resupply capsule to the International Space Station, NASA television showed.

As US firm SpaceX prepares for its third launch to the space station Friday, NASA said there was nothing "particularly challenging" about a mission that a few months ago was unprecedented.

The world's first space tourist, US multimillionaire Dennis Tito, unveiled plans to send a manned mission to Mars and back, targeting a launch date less than five years away.

The world's first space tourist, US multimillionaire Dennis Tito, unveiled plans Wednesday to send a manned mission to Mars and back, targeting a launch date less than five years away.

The International Space Station briefly lost contact with ground controllers on Tuesday because of a computer problem, but its commander said the crew was fine, NASA said.

The International Space Station lost communication with ground controllers on Tuesday but its commander says the crew is fine, NASA said.

For decades, the strange substance called dark matter has teased physicists, challenging conventional notions of the cosmos.

NASA is closely tracking an asteroid large enough to destroy a city that is set to whiz past Earth on Friday in what the US space agency says is the closest flyby ever predicted for such a large object.

The city of Volgograd was renamed Stalingrad for a day on Saturday as Russia marked the 70th anniversary of a brutal battle in which the Red Army defeated Nazi forces and changed the course of World War II.

The city of Volgograd was renamed Stalingrad for a day Saturday as Russia marked the 70th anniversary of a brutal battle in which the Red Army defeated Nazi forces and changed the course of World War II.