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.

Japanese scientists say that silicon is likely the mystery element in the Earth's inner core, claiming progress on solving one of the planet's deepest secrets.

The part of the human brain that is involved in face recognition keeps developing into adulthood, a pair of new studies found, surprising scientists who thought brain tissue growth stopped in early childhood.

A mysterious type of radio wave from deep space, discovered only a decade ago, has been traced to a precise source for the first time, astronomers said Wednesday.