Reuters Science News Summary

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Intuitive Machines' Athena lander closing in on lunar touchdown site

Intuitive Machines sent final commands to its uncrewed Athena spacecraft on Thursday as it closed in on a landing spot near the moon's south pole, the company's second attempt to score a clean touchdown after making a lopsided landing last year. After launching atop a SpaceX rocket on Feb. 26 from Florida, the six-legged Athena lander has flown a winding path to the moon some 238,000 miles (383,000 km) away from Earth, where it will attempt to land closer to the lunar south pole than any other spacecraft.

Musk's SpaceX to invest $1.8 billion in Florida for Starship program expansion

SpaceX is planning to invest at least $1.8 billion to build new Starship launchpads and processing facilities on Florida's Space Coast, eyeing a key expansion for the rocket program beyond Texas amid pending environmental reviews, according to the state's governor. Elon Musk's SpaceX has been looking to build new Starship launchpads near its primary launch sites in Florida, as it works in Texas on early development and testing of the next-generation rocket designed to loft bigger loads of satellites into space and put humans on the moon later this decade.

Tools made from elephant and hippo bones show ingenuity of human ancestors

An assemblage of tools found in Tanzania that was fashioned about 1.5 million years ago from the limb bones of elephants and hippos reveals what scientists are calling a technological breakthrough for the human evolutionary lineage - systematic production of implements made from a material other than stone. The 27 tools, discovered at a rich paleoanthropological site called Olduvai Gorge, were probably created by Homo erectus, an early human species with body proportions similar to our species Homo sapiens, according to the researchers.

L&T bets on space exploration as India expands private rocket and satellite industry

The Indian industrial conglomerate Larsen & Toubro said it is betting on aerospace as a potential growth engine, including launch vehicle and satellite manufacturing, as the country cuts reliance on imports and boosts private participation. L&T, considered a bellwether for India's infrastructure spending because of how many industries its work touches, is the country's largest private-sector defense manufacturer by revenue; its Precision Engineering and Systems unit posted revenue of 46.10 billion rupees ($548.3 million) in the 2024 fiscal year, up 41% from the previous year.