Following is a summary of current science news briefs.
Blue Origin delays next space launch, ‘SNL’ star Davidson will not join flight
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space tourism service has been postponed until March 29 a flight initially set for next week, while “Saturday Night Live” comic Pete Davidson will not be a passenger on the launch, the company said on Thursday. The company, in a brief notice first posted on Twitter, gave no immediate explanation for the change or Davidson’s withdrawal from the manifest of Blue Origin’s fourth commercial flight since last summer.
New Russian cosmonaut team welcomed aboard International Space Station
Three Russian cosmonauts arrived safely at the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, docking their Soyuz capsule with the outpost for a mission that continues a 20-year shared Russian-U.S. presence in orbit despite tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The arrival of the latest cosmonaut team – warmly welcomed by four Americans, two Russians and a German crewmate already aboard – came a day after the European Space Agency (ESA) announced it had suspended a joint robotic rover mission to Mars with Russia due to the Ukraine conflict.
Fish waste become octopus food as farms expand amid captivity concerns
When Mexican biologist Carlos Rosas dips his hand into the water of a large open-topped tank and brings it to the surface, there is a tiny purple baby octopus, no bigger than a tennis ball, in his palm. It squirms and slithers before slipping from his hand back into the tank, the only home it has ever known. This octopus, along with about 250 others, lives in captivity as part of a community project in Sisal, a fishing community in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, that started 15 years ago as a women’s collective.
In Peru, skull of ‘marine monster’ points to fearsome ancient predator
Paleontologists have unearthed the skull of a ferocious marine predator, an ancient ancestor of modern-day whales, which once lived in a prehistoric ocean that covered part of what is now Peru, scientists announced on Thursday. The roughly 36-million-year-old well-preserved skull was dug up intact last year from the bone-dry rocks of Peru’s southern Ocucaje desert, with rows of long, pointy teeth, Rodolfo Salas, chief of paleontology at Peru’s National University of San Marcos, told reporters at a news conference.
Russia to work on solo Mars mission after Europe freezes joint project – Interfax
Russia will start work on its own Mars mission given that the European Space Agency (ESA) has suspended a joint project in the wake of the Ukraine invasion, Interfax news agency quoted a top official as saying on Friday. The ESA announced on Thursday that it would be impossible to continue cooperating with Russia on the ExoMars mission. A Russian rocket had been due to transport a European-made rover to Mars later this year.
NASA’s big, new moon rocket begins rollout en route to launch pad tests
NASA’s next-generation moon rocket began a highly anticipated, slow-motion journey out of its assembly plant en route to the launch pad in Florida on Thursday for a final round of tests in the coming weeks that will determine how soon the spacecraft can fly. Rollout of the 32-story-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion crew capsule marks a key milestone in U.S. plans for renewed lunar exploration after years of setbacks, and the public’s first glimpse of a space vehicle more than a decade in development.
Neurological problems no higher after vaccination; depression, anxiety risk tied to COVID severity
The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review. Neurological risks not higher after COVID-19 vaccines
(With inputs from agencies.)
