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MOJAVE, CALIF. -- Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit postponed its first space launch Sunday due to a technical problem. The company said one sensor was "acting up" and fuel was being offloaded from the rocket in Mojave, California, to address what it termed a minor issue. Source

Astronomers have spotted a massive disk galaxy, not unlike our own, that formed 12.5 billion years ago when our 13.8 billion-year-old universe was only a tenth of its current age. But according to what scientists know about galaxy formation, this one has no business being in the distant universe. Source

As if we didn't have enough to worry about with giant murder hornets invading the U.S. and a global pandemic, millions of 17-year cicadas will emerge from the ground this year. As many as 1.5 million cicadas per acre may emerge, and people living in Southwest Virginia, parts of North Carolina and West Virginia could witness this unique phenomenon, Virginia Tech says in a news release. Source

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. -- The first astronauts launched by SpaceX are breaking new ground for style with hip spacesuits, gull-wing Teslas and a sleek rocketship -- all of it white with black trim. The colourco-ordinating is thanks to Elon Musk, the driving force behind both SpaceX and Tesla, and a big fan of flash and science fiction. Source

As gyms across North America prepare to reopen, many trainers who have managed to gain a following online during quarantine aren't sure whether they'll go back. Zumba instructor Assata McKenzie, who was used to leading a packed room of dance devotees at various Toronto gyms pre-COVID, took the popular Latin-inspired workout classes online when the pandemic began. Source

A U.S. Navy warship has successfully tested a new high-energy laser weapon that can destroy aircraft mid-flight, the Navy's Pacific Fleet said in a statement Friday. Images and videos provided by the Navy show the amphibious transport dock ship USS Portland executing "the first system-level implementation of a high-energy class solid-state laser" to disable an aerial drone aircraft, the statement said. Source

In mid January the British Columbia government announced it was looking at a wide ban on single-use plastic grocery bags to put an end to a piecemeal, city-by-city approach to the problem of plastic pollution. Source

SpaceX's wild ride to the first commercial space taxi launch started with a dream of Mars and lots of failures. In late May, the California company will try to send two astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA. Source

If you're looking for a silver lining to the coronavirus pandemic, your reduced carbon footprint unfortunately isn't it, climate scientists warn. Even with this week's climate change study in the journal Nature citing a 17 per cent drop in daily CO2 emissions compared to this time last year, experts caution against the temptation to inflate the significance of a few weeks or months of reduced human activity, at least when it comes to climate change. Source

The Zoom Erlebniswelt zoo reopens for the public in Gelsenkirchen on May 7, 2020, amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. Source