Virgin Galactic's recent spaceflight flew ancient human fossils to space
On September 8, Virgin Galactic scripted success with its third commercial spaceflight, Galactic 03. That crewed mission is also significant for another reason. It carried two fossilized bones of ancient humans into space for the first time in history. Of the two, one was a two-million-year-old collarbone and the other was a 250,000-year-old thumb bone. The specimens were stored in a protected container and accompanied by one of the three paying customers on board, Timothy Nash.
The fossils symbolized ancestral contributions
"The journey of these fossils into space represents humankind's appreciation of the contribution of all of humanity's ancestors and our ancient relatives," said Lee Berger, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Witwatersrand. "Without their invention of technologies such as fire and tools, and their contribution to the evolution of the contemporary human mind, such extraordinary endeavors as spaceflight would not have happened," he added.
Thumb bone fossil belongs to largest excavation to date
The collarbone fossil belongs to a 4-foot-2 boy, which was discovered in 2008 near Johannesburg. The fossil is associated with the Australopithecus sediba species, which are believed to have walked on two feet but also exhibited apelike behavior like tree climbing, roughly two million years ago. The thumb bone is from the Homo naledi species. It was found in late 2013 and early 2014 during the largest excavation that unearthed 1,550 specimens at a single location in Africa.
Here's more about Galactic 03 spaceflight
Galactic 03 took three astronauts to suborbital space. The mission was launched from Spaceport America in New Mexico. It was Virgin Galactic's eighth overall mission. The VSS Unity space plane separated from its carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, once it reached the intended altitude. The spaceplane then went on to reach a peak altitude of 88.6 kilometers. About an hour after launch, Unity returned to Earth, making a safe runway landing.
Who were the crew members?
Nash flew along with real estate entrepreneur Ken Baxter, and entrepreneur and engineer Adrian Reynard on Galactic 03. Nicola Pecile and Michael Masucci piloted the VSS Unity space plane. The company's chief astronaut instructor, Beth Moses, was also part of the spaceflight.
