Science News Roundup: NASA names solar physicist as agency's science chief; Genetics study lays bare Ice Age drama for humans in Europe and more

Nicola Fox, former top scientist on the Parker Solar Probe mission studying the sun, was named as NASA's associate administrator for the agency's Science Mission Directorate. Japan's ispace on track for late April touchdown attempt of private moon lander Japanese space startup ispace's lunar lander reached its farthest distance from Earth and, despite minor technical hitches during the moonshot, is on track for a lunar landing attempt in late April, company executives said Monday.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Virgin Galactic finishes lengthy spacecraft upgrades, plans Q2 commercial service

Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc has completed a lengthy upgrade period for its centerpiece tourist spacecraft, with commercial service on track to begin in the second quarter of 2023, the company said on Tuesday. The company, founded by billionaire Richard Branson, had suspended flights of the spaceplane VSS Unity and its carrier plane in 2021 to make various spacecraft enhancements, delaying the company's debut customer mission to the edge of space.

Genetics study lays bare Ice Age drama for humans in Europe

Europe was no balmy paradise during the Ice Age, with the vast glaciers that blanketed large parts of the continent rendering wide swathes inhospitable for humans. But our species - a new immigrant to Europe - endured, though with great hardship. Researchers on Wednesday unveiled an analysis of genome data from 356 hunter-gatherers who lived in the region between 35,000 and 5,000 years ago, a span that included the Ice Age's coldest interval between 25,000 and 19,000 years ago. This enabled them to decipher prehistoric Europe's population dynamics, including the movement of groups of people and some key physical traits.

NASA names solar physicist as agency's science chief

NASA announced on Monday it has picked a longtime solar scientist who heads its heliophysics division to become the U.S. space agency's science chief. Nicola Fox, former top scientist on the Parker Solar Probe mission studying the sun, was named as NASA's associate administrator for the agency's Science Mission Directorate.

Japan's ispace on track for late April touchdown attempt of private moon lander

Japanese space startup ispace's lunar lander reached its farthest distance from Earth and, despite minor technical hitches during the moonshot, is on track for a lunar landing attempt in late April, company executives said Monday. The privately built Hakuto-R Mission 1 lunar lander, which launched from Florida in December, had encountered "several" mission hiccups during its trek toward the moon, but many of them were fixable during flight and none jeopardized the craft's anticipated landing in late April, ispace's chief executive, Takeshi Hakamada, told reporters.