From Ant Surgery to Space Collaborations: This Week's Science Highlights

This week in science, SERA announces India as a partner for a new human spaceflight program, ants perform limb amputations to save comrades, Alaska glaciers may be melting faster than expected, a rocket's first stage crashes in central China, and Russia plans to create a new space station by 2030.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

SERA names India as partner country for Blue Origin space flight

The U.S.-based Space Exploration and Research Agency (SERA) on Monday announced India as a partner country in its human spaceflight programme, which will see six citizen astronauts from across the world launched into space. The programme, being executed in collaboration with Blue Origin, is meant for people from countries who have sent "few or no astronauts" to space, the agency said.

Ants perform limb amputations on injured comrades to save their lives

Limb amputations are performed by surgeons when a traumatic injury such as a wound from war or a vehicle accident causes major tissue destruction or in instances of serious infection or disease. But humans are not alone in doing such procedures. New research shows that some ants perform limb amputations on injured comrades to improve their survival chances. The behavior was documented in Florida carpenter ants - scientific name Camponotus floridanus - a reddish-brown species more than half an inch (1.5 cm) long inhabiting parts of the southeastern United States.

Alaska glaciers may hit irreversible melting point sooner than expected, study finds

Glaciers in the Juneau Icefield in southeastern Alaska are melting at a faster rate than previously thought and may reach an irreversible tipping point sooner than expected, according to a study published on Tuesday. Researchers at Newcastle University in England found that glacier loss in the icefield, located just north of Alaska's capital city of Juneau, has accelerated rapidly since 2010.

Space Pioneer says part of rocket crashed in central China

Beijing Tianbing Technology Co said on Sunday that the first stage of its Tianlong-3 rocket under development had detached from its launch pad during a test due to structural failure and landed in a hilly area of the city of Gongyi in central China. There were no reports of casualties after an initial investigation, Beijing Tianbing, also known as Space Pioneer, said in a statement on its official WeChat account.

Russia plans to create core of new space station by 2030

Russia is aiming to create the four-module core of its planned new orbital space station by 2030, its Roscosmos space agency said on Tuesday. The head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, signed off on the timetable with the directors of 19 enterprises involved in creating the new station.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)