Science News Roundup; US achieves first moon landing in half century with private spacecraft; China launches classified communication satellite with powerful rocket and more

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

US achieves first moon landing in half century with private spacecraft

A spacecraft built and flown by Texas-based company Intuitive Machines landed near the moon's south pole on Thursday, the first U.S. touchdown on the lunar surface in more than half a century and the first ever achieved by the private sector. NASA, with several research instruments aboard the vehicle, hailed the landing as a major achievement in its goal of sending a squad of commercially flown spacecraft on scientific scouting missions to the moon ahead of a planned return of astronauts there later this decade.

Moon lander Odysseus tipped sideways on lunar surface but 'alive and well'

The moon lander dubbed Odysseus is "alive and well" but resting on its side a day after its white-knuckle touchdown as the first private spacecraft ever to reach the lunar surface, and the first from the U.S. since 1972, the company behind the vehicle said on Friday. Houston-based Intuitive Machines also revealed that human error led to a failure of the spacecraft's laser-based range finders, how engineers detected the glitch by chance hours before landing time, and how they improvised an emergency fix that saved the mission from a probable crash.

Scientists identify neutron star born out of supernova seen in 1987

When a star up to 20 times the mass of our sun exploded in a nearby galaxy, the blast was so violent that it was visible to the naked eye from Earth's southern hemisphere for weeks in 1987. Scientists have finally identified the progeny of that supernova - an enormously dense object called a neutron star. Two instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that observed the supernova at infrared wavelengths spotted telltale chemical evidence involving argon and sulfur atoms indicating that a newborn neutron star is shrouded behind the debris left over from the blast, researchers said on Thursday.

China launches classified communication satellite with powerful rocket

China on Friday launched the 11th satellite under a classified Chinese military programme with the country's most powerful rocket. Chinese state media reported the successful launch of the satellite from the southern island of Hainan with a Long March 5 rocket.

Study shows how snakes got an evolutionary leg up on the competition

Since first appearing during the age of dinosaurs, snakes have authored an evolutionary success story - slithering into almost every habitat on Earth, from oceans to tree tops. New research details how these limbless reptiles that evolved from four-legged lizards got a figurative leg up on the competition. Scientists generated a comprehensive evolutionary tree of snakes and lizards aided by genomic data spanning roughly 1,000 species, while reviewing the fossil record and compiling data on snake diet, skull anatomy, reproductive biology and geographical range.

(With inputs from agencies.)