Science news Roundup: Iranian satellite launch fails due to technical issues; Idaho artifacts show human presence in Americas 16,600 years ago

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Iranian satellite launch fails due to technical issues: Official

An Iranian rocket exploded on its launch pad at Imam Khomeini Space Center in northern Iran before its scheduled launch on Thursday, an Iranian official said. The launch was due to have taken place despite U.S. warnings to Iran that it should avoid such activity.

Idaho artifacts show human presence in Americas 16,600 years ago

Artifacts including stone tools and animal bone fragments found in Idaho dating back about 16,600 years represent what may be the oldest evidence of humans in the Americas and offer insight into the routes people took as they spread into the New World. Scientists on Thursday said they used a technique called radiocarbon dating to determine the age of artifacts unearthed at an archeological site called Cooper's Ferry along the Salmon River in western Idaho near the town of Cottonwood.

In watershed discovery, skull of ancient human ancestor unearthed

Scientists on Wednesday announced the landmark discovery in Ethiopia of a nearly complete skull of an early human ancestor that lived 3.8 million years ago, a species boasting an intriguing mixture of apelike and humanlike characteristics. The fossil dubbed MRD, which provides insight into a pivotal period for the evolutionary lineage that eventually led to modern humans, belongs to the species Australopithecus anamensis, which first appeared roughly 4.2 million years ago.

SpaceX's Mars rocket prototype rattles nearby residents in Texas flight test

SpaceX test-launched an early prototype of the company's Mars rocket on Tuesday, unnerving residents near the Texas site and clearing another key hurdle in billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's interplanetary ambitions. After the launch, Musk congratulated engineers from SpaceX, short for Space Exploration Technologies Corp, and posted a photo of Starhopper touching down on its landing pad with billowing clouds of dust and sand rising from the ground.

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