European Mars mission funding approved even after test lander's crash

LUCERNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - European space agency (ESA) member states have approved another 450 million euros ($479 million) in funding for the ExoMars mission to the Red Planet, even after a test lander that was part of the program crashed in October, ESA said on Friday.

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U.S. patent agency to weigh rival claims on gene-editing technology

(Reuters) - The U.S. patent agency on Tuesday will hear arguments in a heated dispute over who was first to invent a revolutionary gene-editing technology known as CRISPR.

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Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin recovering well after Antarctic evacuation

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Former U.S. astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, posted photos on Saturday of his recovery in a New Zealand hospital after he was evacuated from the South Pole due to illness.

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Facebook developing artificial intelligence to flag offensive live videos

MENLO PARK, Calif. (Reuters) - Facebook Inc is working on automatically flagging offensive material in live video streams, building on a growing effort to use artificial intelligence to monitor content, said Joaquin Candela, the company’s director of applied machine learning.

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Fate of Russian space cargo ship uncertain after launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Russian flight controllers were assessing whether a cargo ship that blasted off on Thursday with more than 2-1/2 tons of food and supplies for the International Space Station reached its intended orbit, NASA said.

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Human ancestor 'Lucy' adept at tree climbing as well as walking

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Scientists using sophisticated scanning technology on the fossil bones of the ancient human ancestor from Ethiopia dubbed "Lucy" have determined that she was adept at climbing trees as well as walking, an ability that in her case may have proven fatal.

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SpaceX aims for December 16 return to flight, customer Iridium says

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX hopes to return its Falcon 9 rocket to flight on Dec. 16, said Iridium Communications Inc, which plans to have 10 of its satellites on board for launching.

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