Science News Roundup: The first dinosaur was named 200 years ago; Japan delays H3 rocket's second launch due to bad weather and more

SpaceX, the private rocket and satellite company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, said on the social media platform X that the launch team was "standing down from tonight's attempt" because of irregular methane temperatures before loading. Japan delays H3 rocket's second launch due to bad weather The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said on Tuesday it would delay the launch date of the second model of its new H3 flagship rocket from the initially planned Feb. 15 because of forecasts of poor weather.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Launch of private US moon lander postponed by technical glitch in Florida

The planned launch of a robotic moon lander built by Houston-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines was called off less than two hours before Wednesday's liftoff time and postponed for at least a day, launch contractor SpaceX said on Tuesday night. SpaceX, the private rocket and satellite company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, said on the social media platform X that the launch team was "standing down from tonight's attempt" because of irregular methane temperatures before loading.

Japan delays H3 rocket's second launch due to bad weather

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said on Tuesday it would delay the launch date of the second model of its new H3 flagship rocket from the initially planned Feb. 15 because of forecasts of poor weather. The new launch date will be announced later. Weather conditions at the launch site, Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan, appear to set recover late Friday, JAXA's H3 project manager, Masashi Okada, told a news conference.

The first dinosaur was named 200 years ago. We know so much more now

On Feb. 20, 1824, English naturalist and theologian William Buckland addressed the Geological Society of London, describing an enormous jaw and limb bones unearthed in a slate quarry in the village of Stonesfield near Oxford. Buckland recognized that these fossils belonged to a huge bygone reptile, and gave it a formal scientific name: Megalosaurus, meaning "great lizard." With that, the first dinosaur was officially recognized, though the actual word dinosaur would not be coined until the 1840s.

(With inputs from agencies.)