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James May always wanted to be an astronaut. Now, 40 years after the first Apollo landings, he gets a chance to fly to the edge of space in a U2 spy plane. But first he has to undergo three gruelling days of training with the US Air Force and learn to use a space suit to stay alive in air so thin it can kill in an instant. He discovers that during the flight there are only two people higher than him, and they are both real astronauts on the International Space Station.

Prof Stephen Hawking is planning a space flight. The world's best-known scientist, who is 65 today, told The Daily Telegraph: "This year I'm planning a zero-gravity flight and to go into space in 2009." A zero gravity flight is what astronauts call the "vomit comet", in which an aeroplane flies in such a way that people inside are temporarily weightless. Stephen Hawking is 65 today. He was struck down by motor neurone disease when he was 21 and given a year or two to live Prof Hawking's next step towards the cosmos then depends on the Virgin Galactic space tourism...

Mission to Mars is possible as a one-way trip According to Paul Davis, the Australian philosopher from Astrobiology Center, the main obstacle for fulfilling the plans of subjugating Mars in 2030 will be high expenses. Mars- populating with people can be affordable only under the condition of one-way flights to this planet. The expenses for such expeditions will be reduced twofold if astronauts are required to stay in Mars and not to return to the Earth, wrote in the New York Times Paul Davis, the Australian philosopher from Astrobiology Center, the author of the book ?Fifth Wonder: Research of Arising...