Science News Roundup: Virgin Galactic finishes lengthy spacecraft upgrades, plans Q2 commercial service; NASA names solar physicist as agency's science chief 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.

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.

Technical glitch delays NASA-SpaceX launch of next space station crew

NASA and SpaceX postponed the launch of the next long-duration crew to the International Space Station early on Monday, minutes before the rocket was due to lift off, citing a problem with ground systems used to monitor the flow of an engine-ignition fluid. Members of the four-man crew - two U.S. astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates - have since exited the spacecraft and returned to their quarters to await word on when the next launch attempt will be made, the U.S. space agency said.