The first litter of puppies conceived through in vitro fertilization has been born, in a scientific breakthrough decades in the making, U.S. researchers announced Wednesday.

A female dog into which 19 embryos were transferred gave birth in July to seven healthy puppies, according to the researchers from Cornell University.

Japan's space agency said Wednesday its "Akatsuki" probe had successfully entered into orbit around Venus after an initial attempt at reaching the second planet from the sun failed five years ago.

The success marks the first time a Japanese space probe has entered into the orbit of another planet, according to Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Russia has lost communication with a newly developed military satellite after it apparently failed to separate from the booster rocket after its launch, a source in the country's air and space forces told TASS state news agency on Monday. 

"The spacecraft... is recognized as lost since it is impossible to use it according to its purpose," the source said, adding that a repeat attempt to separate the satellite from the upper-stage rocket was unsuccessful.

High winds in Florida have pushed to Sunday Orbital ATK's launch of its unmanned Cygnus cargo ship to the International Space Station, the latest in a series of delays due to weather.

The next launch bid will begin at 4:44 pm (2144 GMT) on Sunday, with the opening of a 30-minute launch window, NASA said.

A ship carrying 25 tons of radioactive waste arrived back in Australia on Saturday, met by activists who warned against the vast nation becoming a nuclear dumping ground.

About a dozen Greenpeace protesters, some carrying signs such as "Don't waste Australia", stood near the entrance to Port Kembla south of Sydney as the BBC Shanghai arrived in a well-policed operation.

British astronaut Tim Peake on Friday said he will be taking part in the London marathon -- harnessed to a running machine 400 kilometers above Earth on the International Space Station.

"As soon as I got assigned to my mission to the International Space Station, I thought wouldn’t it be great to run," said Peake, a former helicopter pilot who will be running for the Prince's Trust charity.

The European Space Agency (ESA) on Thursday said it had launched a prototype lab to test a key part of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, published almost exactly a century ago.

A Vega light rocket lifted off from the ESA's space base in Kourou, French Guiana, carrying a "technology demonstrator" called LISA Pathfinder into orbit, it said.

Beijing ordered hundreds of factories to shut and allowed children to skip school as choking smog reached over 25 times safe levels on Tuesday, casting a cloud over China's participation in Paris climate talks.

A thick grey haze shrouded the capital with concentrations of PM 2.5, harmful microscopic particles that penetrate deep into the lungs, as high as 634 micrograms per cubic metre.

The Chinese scientist behind the world's biggest cloning factory has technology advanced enough to replicate humans, he told Agence France Presse, and is only holding off for fear of the public reaction.

Boyalife Group and its partners are building the giant plant in the northern Chinese port of Tianjin, where it is due to go into production within the next seven months and aims for an output of one million cloned cows a year by 2020.

Japan will resume "research" whaling in the Antarctic by the end of March next year, local media reported Saturday, despite a call by global regulators for more evidence that the expeditions have a scientific purpose.

The move came after a one-season suspension of its hunting in the ocean as the United Nations' top legal body judged last year that Japan's whaling there was a fig leaf for a commercial hunt.