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On February 28, SpaceX cancelled the launch of a commercial communications satellite seconds before liftoff, and postponed the mission once again. Launch controllers said that SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket was planned to launch the SES-9 satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 6:46 pm yesterday, but the initial liftoff time was delayed back 35 minutes as a boat drifted into the mission's ‘keep-out zone’.

Falcon 9's engines started firing up at 7:21 pm EST, however, they stopped the moment countdown clock was about to reach 0.

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said that the rocket could have blasted off yesterday if there wasn’t any stray boat.

An interactive session was conducted between students of City of Norwich School and British astronaut Tim Peake. The session, which took place yesterday, saw the 10 curious youngsters asking varied question from Peake as he passed 250 miles overhead aboard the International Space Station.

Student and amateur radio enthusiast Tim Hare, 15, were given the task to establish contact with the ISS using the specially designated call sign. After a few seconds, the connection was obtained and students were able to hear the muffled voice of Major Peake, 43. He appeared to be floating on screen.

On Friday, investigators said that monarch butterflies have made a big return in their wintering grounds in Mexico, after witnessing severe declines in recent years. Scientific community and media raised awareness about declining numbers of Monarch butterflies.

This season, the region covered by the orange-and-black butterflies in the mountains west of Mexico City was over three and a half times greater in comparison to last winter. The butterflies clump so heavily in forests they are counted by the area covered by them to estimate their number.

In recent years, before recovering in 2015, the number of monarchs that migrate covering a distance of 3,400-mile from the United States and Canada fell steadily. The most recent winter was even better.

A latest study used Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) data and simulations of the interstellar boundary present at the very edge of the big magnetic bubble around our solar system known as the heliosphere to describe space in our galactic neighborhood in a better way.

Published on February 8, 2016, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the paper has accurately determined the strength and direction of the magnetic field beyond the heliosphere. The information has given scientists a peek into the magnetic forces ruling the galaxy beyond, teaching them more regarding their home in space.

Entire science community was surprised last month when two Caltech astronomers claimed that they have found ninth planet of our solar system, approximately 20 times further than Neptune. Now, NASA's Cassini probe is going to help astronomers locate the elusive planet far beyond the orbit of Pluto.

Presence of Planet Nine hypothesized by Caltech astronomers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin is based on modeling, not direct observations. But the duo predicted that the search of the elusive planet can be narrowed with the help of some good quality telescopes.

NASA has long been on a mission to determine the impact of travelling in space on the health of astronauts. The mission will move a step closer as the astronaut Scott Kelly comes back from the International Space Station (ISS) next week after a space trip of 11 months. Scientists from UC San Diego (USCD) revealed these reports. With Scott Kelly on the ISS, his twin brother Mark was here on Earth being monitored by researchers in terms of his health parameters.