Well that's a head-scratcher. Could be due to a number of things. Maybe you could try out another browser, like Mozilla.
Or, you could try this: the actual Shockwave Flash file embedded in the web page is at
http://wires.news.com.au/special/mm/030811-hubble2.swf You could right-click on the link above, go "Save Target As", and download it to some location on your hard drive. Then open that local file with your browser; File > Open > Browse button > change "Files of Type" to "All files", browse to where you saved the file, select it, click Open, click OK.