AFP - A Russian Proton-M rocket blasted off Saturday from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome, carrying a US communications satellite, but failed to take it into orbit, Russian space officials said.

AP - Japan's space agency launched an experimental communications satellite Saturday designed to enable super high-speed data transmission at home and in Southeast Asia.

Reuters - Space shuttle Atlantis left orbit on Wednesday and headed toward a landing in Florida ahead of a U.S. military operation to shoot a dead spy satellite out of the sky.

AP - The cattle industry and animal rights groups bickered over the treatment of beef destined for U.S. dinner plates a day after secret video triggered the nation's largest meat recall.

Reuters - Astronauts worked to outfit Europe's new permanent space laboratory on Saturday as a busy visit by NASA's shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station neared its end.

Reuters - Meat and milk products of offspring from the 600 cloned animals in the United States most likely have not entered the nation's food supply, an official with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday, as the agency downplayed the long-term impact of cloning.

AP - Four decades after it was abandoned, King Island holds an almost mystical pull for former inhabitants and their descendants, its crumbling homes still perched on stilts, clinging to the steep, rocky terrain.