Science News Roundup: Branson's Virgin Galactic to sell space flight tickets starting at $450,000; Boeing postpones Starliner launch after new glitch and more

Boeing engineers ruled out "a number of potential causes, including software," but were still working to understand the source of "unexpected valve position indications" in the propulsion system, Boeing said in a statement Tuesday evening. Russia, U.S. to work together on space station after 2024 - Ifax Russia and the United States will continue working together on the International Space Station (ISS) after 2024, the Interfax news agency cited a senior official at Russia's space agency Roscosmos as saying on Wednesday.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Branson's Virgin Galactic to sell space flight tickets starting at $450,000

Spaceship company Virgin Galactic said it will open ticket sales on Thursday for space flights starting at $450,000 a seat, weeks after billionaire founder Richard Branson's high-profile trip to the edge of space. Branson soared more than 50 miles above the New Mexico desert aboard a Virgin Galactic rocket plane on July 11 and safely returned in the vehicle's first fully crewed test flight to space, a symbolic milestone for a venture he started 17 years ago. Shares of the company rose 5% in extended trading on Thursday.

Boeing postpones Starliner launch after new glitch

Boeing Co scrubbed the launch of its CST-100 Starliner to the International Space Station on Tuesday due to a system glitch, a fresh setback for the U.S. aerospace company following the vehicle's botched 2019 debut. Boeing engineers ruled out "a number of potential causes, including software," but we're still working to understand the source of "unexpected valve position indications" in the propulsion system, Boeing said in a statement Tuesday evening.

Russia, U.S. to work together on space station after 2024 - Ifax

Russia and the United States will continue working together on the International Space Station (ISS) after 2024, the Interfax news agency cited a senior official at Russia's space agency Roscosmos as saying on Wednesday. Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin in June suggested Moscow, whose newly attached research module briefly threw the space station off course last week, would withdraw from the ISS in 2025 unless Washington lifted sanctions on the space sector that were hampering Russian satellite launches.

Geological analysis explains durability of Stonehenge megaliths

The first comprehensive scientific analysis of Stonehenge's imposing megaliths has revealed some of the traits that made them an exemplary building material for the famed monument in southern England including their stout resistance to weathering. Researchers on Wednesday described a battery of examinations that provided a glimpse inside one of Stonehenge's 52 sandstone megaliths, known as sarsens, gaining insight into its geology and chemistry.

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