Here are today’s most important updates from the realm of Science and Space.

NASA to put Artemis II Rocket, Spacecraft in VAB

NASA’s Artemis II Moon rocket is rolling back to the hangar. 🚀🌕

Just one day after a successful fueling test, @NASA engineers identified helium flow issues in the Space Launch System’s upper stage, prompting a rollback to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs. The delay… pic.twitter.com/ZCIKnGzpxS

— Museum of Science (@museumofscience) February 24, 2026

NASA is set to roll back the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft for Artemis II from the launch pad after it encountered an issue with the flow of helium to the rocket’s upper stage. Although a four-mile trek to the Vehicle Assembly Building, rolling back an entire spacecraft could take hours of operation. When the mission takes off, it will take four astronauts – Weid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen – on a 10-day trip around the moon.

90 per cent of Prostate Cancer Could Be Because of Microplastics

According to a new study by NYU Langone Health and its Perlmutter Cancer Center and Center for the Investigation of Environmental Hazards, nine out of ten patients with prostate cancer had microplastics in their tumours. Plastic materials used in food packaging, cosmetics, and many everyday products when heated can break down into microscopic fragments and enter the human body.

Forecast Space Weather in Weeks, Not Just Hours

The U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) and Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) have developed a new system that can predict space weather nearly a week before instead of just hours, allowing agencies and industries to prepare for an anomaly. Named PINNBARDS, the physics-informed, AI-enabled forecasting tool will safeguard our lives, ranging from infrastructure to agriculture and even space missions.

India to Listen to Black Holes

The Department of Atomic Energy has handed over a 2,600-crore contract to LIGO-India, an observatory that will be capable of listening to black holes collide lightyears away from us. Larsen & Toubro, India’s largest engineering conglomerate, has won the contract, and it will take nearly 48 months to build the observatory in the Hingoli district of eastern Maharashtra.