Science News Roundup: NASA's Orion capsule returns to Earth, capping Artemis I flight around moon; Japan's ispace launches world's first commercial moon lander and more

The gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, carrying a simulated crew of three mannequins wired with sensors, plunked down in the ocean at 9:40 a.m. PST (1740 GMT) off Mexico's Baja California peninsula, demonstrating a high-stakes homecoming before NASA flies its first crew of Artemis astronauts around the moon in the next few years. Japan's ispace launches world's first commercial moon lander A Japanese space startup launched a spacecraft to the moon on Sunday after several delays, a step toward what would be a first for the nation and for a private company.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Robots set their sights on a new job: sewing blue jeans

Will a robot ever make your blue jeans? There is a quiet effort underway to find out — involving clothing and technology companies, including Germany's Siemens AG and Levi Strauss & Co.

Study shows dinosaurs were 'struck down in their prime' by asteroid

The age of dinosaurs ended in cataclysm one spring day 66 million years ago when an asteroid 7.5 miles (12 km) wide hit Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, triggering the extinction of those remarkable beasts and about three quarters of Earth's species. But were the dinosaurs already on the way out, with diversification faltering and rates of evolution sputtering, as some scientists have proposed? The answer is a definite "no," according to a new study that modeled food chains and ecological habitats in North America, the part of the world best represented in the fossil record from that time.

NASA's Orion capsule returns to Earth, capping Artemis I flight around moon

NASA's Orion capsule barreled through Earth's atmosphere and splashed down in the Pacific ocean on Sunday after making an uncrewed voyage around the moon, winding up the inaugural mission of the U.S. agency's new Artemis lunar program 50 years to the day after Apollo's final moon landing. The gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, carrying a simulated crew of three mannequins wired with sensors, plunked down in the ocean at 9:40 a.m. PST (1740 GMT) off Mexico's Baja California peninsula, demonstrating a high-stakes homecoming before NASA flies its first crew of Artemis astronauts around the moon in the next few years.

Japan's ispace launches world's first commercial moon lander

A Japanese space startup launched a spacecraft to the moon on Sunday after several delays, a step toward what would be a first for the nation and for a private company. ispace Inc's HAKUTO-R mission took off without incident from Cape Canaveral, Florida, after two postponements caused by inspections of its SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Explainer-Could fusion energy help fight climate change?

U.S. scientists announced a breakthrough on fusion energy on Tuesday, potentially a step toward one day harnessing the process that fires the sun to generate carbon-free electricity as the world struggles with climate change. Here are some of the main issues surrounding fusion energy:

U.S. lab hits fusion milestone raising hopes for clean power

U.S. scientists on Tuesday revealed a breakthrough on fusion energy that could one day help curb climate change if companies can scale up the technology to a commercial level in the coming decades. Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California on Dec. 5 for the first time briefly achieved a net energy gain in a fusion experiment using lasers, the U.S. Energy Department said. The scientists focused a laser on a target of fuel to fuse two light atoms into a denser one, releasing the energy.