The Associated Press reports that two NASA Viking space probes visiting Mars in 1976-77 may have come across alien microbes and killed them by drowning and overheating them, according to a paper released at an American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle. It was accidental, since the probes were looking for Earth-like life, not the hydrogen peroxide-based life that could have evolved on Mars in the Red Planet’s cold, dry conditions. A NASA official told AP the agency is revising its definition of “life.”
Facing competition from fast-growing startups, Lockheed Martin is speeding up production of an “affordable, scalable” hypersonic glide body, dubbed the Next Generation Glide Body, the firm said in a June 24 release.