Abandon spaceship

IT HAS not been a good week for space flight. On April 8th the space shuttle Co lumbia returned to earth with a faulty fuel cell, having spent only four of its planned 16 days in orbit. As it was making its final approach, an unmanned launch was docking with Russia's Mir space station. This was bearing the chemicals and equipment needed to keep Mir's oxygen supply intact after the latest in a series of mishaps that would provide enough material for a full-length disaster movie. And, a day later, NASA, America's space agency, announced that the first part of the International Space Station (ISS) will be launched in October 1998 instead of this November, because of Russia's inability to keep to its part of the schedule.