Science News Roundup: NASA astronaut Koch returns to Earth; Starliner test flirted with 'catastrophic' failure and more

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

NASA astronaut Koch returns to Earth after record space mission

A capsule carrying a crew of three from the International Space Station, including record-setting United States astronaut Christina Koch, landed in Kazakhstan on Thursday, a live feed by Russian space agency Roscosmos showed. The touchdown on a snow-covered steppe also marked the return to earth of Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano and Russia's Alexander Skvortsov.

Boeing's botched Starliner test flirted with 'catastrophic' failure: NASA panel

Boeing narrowly missed a "catastrophic failure" during its December flight test of an unmanned space taxi that was cut short by an unrelated problem, a NASA safety review panel said Thursday, recommending that the agency examine Boeing's software verification process before letting it fly humans to space. The newly revealed software bug, which Boeing said was fixed while the CST-100 Starliner was still in orbit, could have "led to erroneous thruster firings" that could have resulted in "a catastrophic spacecraft failure," panel member Paul Hill said.

OneWeb launches 34 satellites from Kazakh cosmodrome in global internet push

The UK firm OneWeb launched 34 satellites from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan early on Friday as part of its effort to provide global high-speed internet access using satellite communications by 2021. The Russian Soyuz rocket left Baikonur at 0242 local times (2142 GMT on Thursday), the second OneWeb launch out of 21 planned. OneWeb launched six satellites from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, in February 2019.

Fireflies threatened globally, with light pollution a glaring problem

Fireflies are under threat globally, with familiar hazards such as habitat loss and pesticides compounded by another peril: humankind's ubiquitous nighttime artificial light that plays havoc with their balletic nocturnal courtship, scientists said. In the most comprehensive worldwide assessment to date of dangers facing these flying beetles, researchers concluded that some of the 2,000-plus firefly species may face extinction threats while others are doing just fine.

NASA astronaut Christina Koch returns to Earth after record mission

American astronaut Christina Koch, who led the first all-female spacewalk in 2019, landed in Kazakhstan on Thursday after a record stay on the International Space Station, ending a 328-day mission expected to yield new insights into deep-space travel. Koch, a North Carolina-born engineer who joined NASA's astronaut corps in 2013, set the record for the longest stay in space by a woman. Her mission will provide researchers valuable data on how weightlessness and space radiation affect the female body on long spaceflights.