Science News Roundup: SpaceX Starship rocket test could happen next week; NASA names woman, Black astronauts to Artemis II crew in lunar first and more

Life somehow managed to survive during this time called “Snowball Earth,” and a new study offers a deeper understanding as to why. Former fighter pilot to be first Canadian to fly to the moon NASA on Monday said Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen will join a lunar flyby mission expected to take off for the moon in 2024 as part of an expedition that will make the former fighter pilot the first Canadian to explore beyond earth’s orbit.

Life on our planet faced a stern test during the Cryogenian Period that lasted from 720 million to 635 million years ago when Earth twice was frozen over with runaway glaciation and looked from space like a shimmering white snowball. Life somehow managed to survive during this time called “Snowball Earth,” and a new study offers a deeper understanding as to why.

Former fighter pilot to be first Canadian to fly to the moon

NASA on Monday said Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen will join a lunar flyby mission expected to take off for the moon in 2024 as part of an expedition that will make the former fighter pilot the first Canadian to explore beyond earth’s orbit. Hansen, 47, will be joined by three U.S. astronauts for a historic crewed mission to the moon that will be the first since the end of the Apollo program 50 years ago.

Deepest-ever fish caught and filmed off Japan by scientists

Fish have been caught more than 5 miles (8 kilometres) under the surface of the ocean for the first time ever – and filmed even deeper – by a joint Japanese-Australian scientific expedition. The expedition’s chief scientist, Professor Alan Jamieson, said on Monday that two snailfish were caught in traps set 8,022 metres underwater in the Japan Trench, south of Japan, during a two-month voyage by a team from the University of Western Australia (UWA) and the Tokyo University of Marine Science.

SpaceX Starship rocket test could happen next week –FAA

A SpaceX Starship Super Heavy rocket launch test could happen next week, according to a planning notice posted Tuesday by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA notice said the launch’s primary expected date is April 10, but listed backup dates as April 11 and 12. SpaceX must still get a launch license for what is expected to be SpaceX’s first orbital flight test from Boca Chica, Texas.

NASA names woman, Black astronauts to Artemis II crew in lunar first

NASA on Monday named the first woman and the first African American ever assigned as astronauts to a lunar mission, introducing them as part of the four-member team chosen to fly on what would be the first crewed voyage around the moon in more than 50 years. Christina Koch, 44, an engineer who already holds the record for longest continuous spaceflight by a woman and was part of NASA’s first three all-female spacewalks, was named as a mission specialist for the Artemis II lunar flyby expected as early as next year.

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