Reuters Science News Summary

When it does, a spacecraft launched by NASA in 2016 is expected to be in position to provide a detailed examination of this rare close encounter. Former US astronaut Frank Borman dies at 95 Former U.S. astronaut Frank Borman, who made history by commanding the first manned flight to circle the moon and later piloted Eastern Airlines as chairman in severe economic turbulence, has died at the age of 95, NASA said on Thursday.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

NASA probe to observe near-Earth asteroid's 2029 close encounter

About 5-1/2 years from now, astronomers predict, an asteroid about as wide as the Empire State Building is tall will streak through space within 20,000 miles (32,200 km) of Earth, the closest any celestial object of that size will have come to our planet in modern history. When it does, a spacecraft launched by NASA in 2016 is expected to be in position to provide a detailed examination of this rare close encounter.

Former US astronaut Frank Borman dies at 95

Former U.S. astronaut Frank Borman, who made history by commanding the first manned flight to circle the moon and later piloted Eastern Airlines as chairman in severe economic turbulence, has died at the age of 95, NASA said on Thursday. Borman, who spent a total of almost 20 days in space on two trips in the 1960s, died on Tuesday in Billings, Montana, NASA said in a statement on its website.

Long-lost mammal rediscovered in remote Indonesia mountains

Scientists have rediscovered a long-lost species of mammal described as having the spines of a hedgehog, the snout of an anteater and the feet of a mole, in Indonesia's Cyclops Mountains more than 60 years after it was last recorded. Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, named after British naturalist David Attenborough, was photographed for the first time by a trail camera on the last day of a four-week expedition led by Oxford University scientists.