Breaking Science News: Spacecraft Returns, Rocket Fails, Mars Plans & Ice Age Discoveries

A Russian Soyuz capsule successfully brought two cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut back from the ISS. China's Deep Blue Aerospace's reusable rocket test failed. SpaceX aims to launch five uncrewed Starships to Mars in two years. Researchers found Ice Age mastodons in Peru's Andes.

A Russian Soyuz capsule successfully landed in the Kazakh steppe on Monday, bringing back two Russian cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut from the International Space Station (ISS). The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft, carrying Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko along with NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, touched down at 1159 GMT.

In other space news, China's Deep Blue Aerospace announced on Sunday that its pioneering reusable kerosene-fueled rocket, Nebula-1, failed to complete a high-altitude vertical recovery test flight in Inner Mongolia. Despite the setback, the rocket managed to complete 10 out of its 11 designated tasks before crashing during its final stage descent.

Meanwhile, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed plans to launch approximately five uncrewed Starship missions to Mars within the next two years. This ambitious timeline aligns with the opening of the next Earth-Mars transfer window.

On a different scientific front, researchers have uncovered the fossilized remains of three Ice Age mastodons in the Peruvian Andes. Believed to be between 11,000 and 12,000 years old, these findings pose intriguing questions about the ancient mammoths' migration patterns in the region.

(With inputs from agencies.)