Science News Roundup: Oldest fossils of remarkable marine reptiles found in Arctic; NASA awards Firefly Aerospace $112 million contract for far-side moon lander and more

Those will be the first of over 3,000 satellites the technology giant plans to launch in low-Earth orbit in the next few years. Study explains mealtime for the minke whale, the ocean's littlest giant As the smallest of the group of baleen whales that includes the blue whale - filter-feeding behemoths of the marine realm - the Antarctic minke whale aptly can be called the littlest giant.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Oldest fossils of remarkable marine reptiles found in Arctic

Ichthyosaurs were a successful group of marine reptiles that prospered during the age of dinosaurs, some reaching up to around 70 feet (21 meters) long - exceeded in size in the history of Earth's oceans only by the largest of the whales. But their origins have been a bit mysterious. Fossils dating to about 250 million years ago unearthed in a harsh and remote locale - Norway's Arctic island of Spitsbergen - are now providing surprising insight into the rise of ichthyosaurs.

NASA awards Firefly Aerospace $112 million contract for far-side moon lander

NASA on Tuesday said it had picked U.S. rocket builder Firefly Aerospace to put a lander on the moon's far side in 2026, under a nearly $112 million contract. "The commercial lander will deliver two agency payloads, as well as communication and data relay satellite for lunar orbit, which is an ESA (European Space Agency) collaboration with NASA," the U.S. space agency said.

Spain's race to space about to blast off with reusable rocket launch

Two Spanish engineers hope to put their country at the forefront of the space transport industry with the launch of what could be the first private reusable rocket from Western Europe later this year. Raul Torres and Raul Verdu, who work for Spanish launch company PLD Space, have named their suborbital microlauncher "Miura 1" after a renowned breed of bull in Spain's bullfighting tradition.

Amazon targets 2024 launch of first Kuiper internet satellites

Amazon.com plans to launch its first internet satellites to space in the first half of 2024 and offer initial commercial tests shortly after, the company said Tuesday, as it prepares to vie with Elon Musk's SpaceX and others to provide broadband internet globally. Amazon's satellite internet unit, Project Kuiper, will begin mass-producing the satellites later this year, the company said. Those will be the first of over 3,000 satellites the technology giant plans to launch in low-Earth orbit in the next few years.

Study explains mealtime for the minke whale, the ocean's littlest giant

As the smallest of the group of baleen whales that includes the blue whale - filter-feeding behemoths of the marine realm - the Antarctic minke whale aptly can be called the littlest giant. It also has been among the most enigmatic of the baleen whales, owing to its remote and frigid domain. New research provides a fuller understanding of this species, focusing on a foraging behavior called lunge-feeding that it shares with the other members of its cetacean group, the rorqual whales. It showed that the Antarctic minke whale, reaching a maximum of about 26 feet (8 meters) long, has the smallest possible body size to capture enough prey to survive using this feeding strategy.