Japan's new solid-fuel rocket blasted off Saturday carrying a telescope for remote observation of planets in a launch coordinated from a laptop computer-based command centre.
Fresh satellite imagery shows North Korea has embarked on a major new construction programme at the facility where it launched a long-range rocket in December.
A group of jihadist fighters said Tuesday they had fired a Grad rocket on the Israeli Red Sea town of Eilat in retaliation for an alleged Israeli air raid.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Friday issued an official reprimand to the head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos after a series of embarrassing rocket launch failures.
Corresponding member and analyst of Tsiolkovskiy Russian Cosmonautics Academy Yuriy Karash commented the possible consequences of the crash of Proton-M at Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
An unmanned Russian carrier rocket exploded on takeoff at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, releasing tonnes of highly toxic fuel into the air in the space programme's latest disaster caught on live television.