Here is a summary of current scientific news.

Boeing’s first crewed Starliner spaceflight postpones to April 2023

Boeing’s first human-carrying Starliner capsule mission has slipped from February to April 2023 as the company works with NASA to resolve lingering technical issues with the spacecraft’s final uncrewed test flight, the space agency said Thursday. American. The long-awaited Starliner mission carrying a crew of NASA astronauts to the International Space Station is the final step before the spacecraft can be certified for routine flights, and will mark a pivotal moment for Boeing’s space unit as that it struggles to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. .

In Spain’s Rioja, old vines could protect wine against climate change

When Spanish genetics researcher Pablo Carbonell spots a green rectangle among the endless rows of gray on his computer screen, it could be good news for winemakers struggling with the impact of a warmer climate. The green reveals a change from the archetypal local vine genome that indicates a longer maturity cycle, increasingly coveted by winemakers in Spain and around the world.

Spain briefly closes part of airspace as debris from Chinese rockets flies overhead

Spain briefly closed airspace over the northeastern region of Catalonia and three other regions on Friday, causing delays of around 300 flights, as the remnants of a Chinese rocket passed before to hit the ocean off the coast of Mexico, authorities said. “Due to the risk associated with the passage of the CZ-5B space object through Spanish airspace, flights have been totally limited from 9:38 a.m. to 10:18 a.m. (08:38-09:18 GMT) in Catalonia and other communities,” said said the emergency service on its Twitter account.

Latest U.S. Defense Intelligence Report on UFOs Coming Soon

A declassified version of the latest U.S. defense intelligence report on UFOs – renamed in official government parlance “unidentified aerial phenomena” – is expected to be made public in the coming days. But UFO enthusiasts hoping the government will deem any of the hundreds of U.S. military sightings under scrutiny as alien spacecraft visits will likely be disappointed.

Remnants of China’s Long March 5B rocket re-enter the atmosphere

The remains of China’s most powerful rocket, the Long March 5B, re-entered the atmosphere at 6:08 p.m. Beijing time (1008 GMT) on Friday, China Manned Space said. Most of the remains burned during reentry, and the remaining remains landed in the 101.9 degrees west, 9.9 degrees north coordinate area, the agency said.

Tongan volcano eruption triggered highest plume on record

The January 15 powerful submarine eruption of Tonga’s Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano in the South Pacific produced a plume that soared higher into Earth’s atmosphere than any other on record – about 35 miles ( 57 km) – as it stretched more than halfway into space, researchers said Thursday. The greyish-white plume triggered by the eruption in the Polynesian archipelago has become the first documented record to have penetrated a freezing layer of the atmosphere called the mesosphere, according to scientists who used a new technique using multiple satellite images to measure its height.

(With agency contributions.)