The U.S. space agency will send an unmanned spacecraft to a nearby asteroid in 2016 and bring back a sample to provide clues about the formation of the solar system, NASA said on Wednesday.The mission known as Osiris-Rex will be the first U.S. effort to bring back a sample from an asteroid.
The astronauts on NASA’s next to last space shuttle flight hit the halfway point of their 16-day journey on Tuesday, marvelling over earthly vistas and expressing sadness over Endeavour’s looming retirement.Endeavour’s six astronauts took it easy on their eighth day in orbit. On Monday, they said goodbye to three colleagues who landed safely in Kazakhstan aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule. 
The space shuttle Endeavour arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) for the last time Wednesday, bringing a science experiment and other supplies.The shuttle docked with the ISS at 6:14 am (1214 GMT), at which time the spacecraft were flying about 354 kilometres above and east of Chile, US space agency NASA said.The Endeavour blasted off Monday on its final mission before NASA retires the ageing shuttle fleet later this year.Just one more shuttle mission is planned, with Atlantis due to travel to the ISS in July.The six-member crew of five US astronauts and an Italian are delivering a high-tech particle monitor to the station that scientists hope could provide clues about the formation of the universe.The 2-billion-dollar particle physics detector, known as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2, will allow scientists to measure cosmic rays in the search for dark matter and antimatter.After docking, the astronauts’ first task will be to unload a giant container of supplies for the ISS using the shuttle’s robotic arm.The first of four spacewalks is scheduled for Friday.
The final launch of the space shuttle Endeavour was aborted just hours before lift-off because of a technical problem. The astronauts were on their way to the launch pad when NASA called off the countdown due to a malfunction in the shuttle's onboard heaters.A huge crowd had converged at Cape Canaveral area for the lift off. The Space Shuttle is likely to take at least three days to fix the fault. 