A "scorpion" robot sent into a Japanese nuclear reactor to learn about the damage suffered in a tsunami-induced meltdown had its mission aborted after the probe ran into trouble, Tokyo Electric Power company said Thursday.

India successfully put a record 104 satellites from a single rocket into orbit on Wednesday in the latest triumph for its famously frugal space agency.

Scientists who were at the launch in the southern spaceport of Sriharikota burst into applause as the head of India's Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced all the satellites had been ejected.

A massive underwater landslide that could have triggered a towering tsunami some 300,000 years ago has been discovered in the depths of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, scientists said Wednesday.

The ancient landslide, likely caused by a strong earthquake that could have generated a tsunami wave 27 metres (90 feet) high, was discovered unexpectedly by researchers conducting three-dimensional mapping of the seafloor around the world's biggest reef.

An experimental Japanese mission to clear 'space junk' or rubbish from the Earth's orbit has ended in failure, officials said Monday, in an embarrassment for Tokyo.

A Russian-built Soyuz rocket blasted off from French Guiana and successfully placed into orbit a Spanish telecommunications satellite, the French launch company Arianespace said.

It said the rocket took off from the Guiana Space Center at 10:30 pm local time Friday (0130 GMT Saturday).

Europe's beleaguered Galileo satnav has suffered another setback, with clocks failing onboard a number of satellites in space, the European Space Agency said Wednesday.

US astronaut Eugene Cernan, the last man to set foot on the moon, died Monday at age 82, NASA and his family announced.

Japan's space agency Sunday aborted a mission to use a mini-rocket to send a satellite into orbit after the spacecraft stopped sending data to ground control shortly after liftoff.

SpaceX is poised to blast off a Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday, marking its first return to flight since a costly and complicated launchpad explosion in September.

The launch of 10 satellites for Iridium, a mobile and data communications company, is scheduled from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 9:54 am (1754 GMT).

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet stepped out on his first spacewalk Friday to help upgrade the power system outside the International Space Station with new, refrigerator-sized lithium-ion batteries.

Accompanied by American astronaut Shane Kimbrough, the men switched on their spacesuits internal battery power to mark the official start of the spacewalk at 6:22 am (1122 GMT), more than a half hour earlier than scheduled.