The damage occurred during the shipment of the spacecraft’s pressurized cargo module from its manufacturer in Italy. While Northrop Grumman hopes to repair the module and launch it on a future flight, officials decided it would be quicker to move forward with the next spacecraft in line for launch this month.

This is the first flight of a larger model of the Cygnus spacecraft known as the Cygnus XL, measuring 5.2 feet (1.6 meters) longer, with the ability to carry 33 percent more cargo than the previous Cygnus spacecraft design. With this upgrade, this mission is carrying the heaviest load of supplies ever delivered to the ISS by a commercial cargo vehicle.

The main engine on the Cygnus spacecraft burns a mixture of hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants. This mixture is hypergolic, meaning the propellants ignite upon contact with one another, a design heralded for its reliability. The spacecraft has a separate set of less powerful reaction control system thrusters normally used for small maneuvers, and for pointing the ship in the right direction as it makes its way to the ISS.

If the main engine is declared unusable, one possible option for getting around the main engine problem might be using these smaller thrusters to more gradually adjust the Cygnus spacecraft’s orbit to line up the final approach with the ISS. However, it wasn’t immediately clear if this was a viable option.

Unlike SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon spacecraft, the Cygnus is not designed to return to Earth intact. Astronauts fill it with trash before departure from the ISS, and then the spacecraft heads for a destructive reentry over the remote Pacific Ocean. Therefore, a problem preventing the spacecraft from reaching the ISS would result in the loss of all of the cargo onboard.

The supplies on this mission, designated NG-23, include fresh food, hardware for numerous biological and tech demo experiments, and spare parts for things like the space station’s urine processor and toilet to replenish the space station’s dwindling stocks of those items.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — At least 146 land and environmental defenders were killed or have gone missing around the world in 2024, with more than 80% of those cases in Latin America, according to a report released Wednesday by watchdog group Global Witness.

The London-based organization said the region once again ranked as the most dangerous for people protecting their homes, communities and natural resources, recording 120 of the total cases. Colombia remained the deadliest country, with 48 killings — nearly a third of cases worldwide — followed by Guatemala with 20 and Mexico with 18.

The number of killings in Guatemala jumped fivefold from four in 2023, making it the country with the highest per capita rate of defender deaths in the world. Brazil registered 12 killings, while Honduras, Chile and Mexico each recorded one disappearance.

“There are many factors that contribute to the persistent high levels of violence in Latin American countries, particularly Colombia,” Laura Furones, lead researcher of the report, told The Associated Press. “These countries are rich in natural resources and have vast areas of land under pressure for food and feed production. Conflict over the extraction of such resources and over the use of such land often leads to violence against defenders trying to uphold their rights.”

Since 2012, Global Witness has documented more than 2,250 killings and disappearances of land and environmental defenders worldwide. Nearly three-quarters occurred in Latin America, including close to 1,000 cases since 2018, when the region adopted the Escazu Agreement — a treaty designed to protect environmental defenders. The pact requires governments to guarantee access to environmental information, ensure public participation in environmental decision-making and take timely measures to prevent and punish attacks against those who defend the environment.

“The Escazu Agreement provides a crucial tool for Latin America and the Caribbean,” said Furones. “But some countries have still not ratified it, and others that have are proving slow to implement and resource it properly. Stopping violence against defenders will not happen overnight, but governments must ramp up their efforts toward full implementation.”

Indigenous resistance

The report noted that Indigenous peoples bore a disproportionate share of the violence. They accounted for around one-third of all lethal attacks worldwide last year despite making up only about 6% of the global population. Ninety-four percent of all attacks on Indigenous defenders documented in the report occurred in Latin America.

In Colombia’s southwestern Cauca region, Indigenous youth are working to ensure they will not be the next generation of victims. Through community “semilleros,” or seedbeds, children and teenagers train in environmental care, cultural traditions and territorial defense — preparing to take on leadership roles in protecting land that has come under pressure from armed groups and extractive industries.

“We are defenders because our lives and territories are under threat,” said Yeing Aníbal Secué, a 17-year-old Indigenous youth leader from Toribio, Cauca, who spoke to AP in July.

These initiatives show how communities are organizing at the grassroots to resist violence, even as Colombia remains the deadliest country for defenders.

Small-scale farmers were also heavily targeted, making up 35% of the victims in the region. Most killings were tied to land disputes, and many were linked to industries such as mining, logging and agribusiness. Organized crime groups were suspected of being behind at least 42 cases, followed by private security forces and hired hitmen.

Colombia one of the worst hit

The Amazonian department of Putumayo in southern Colombia illustrates many of the risks faced by defenders. With its strategic location bridging the Andes and the Amazon, the region is rich in forests, rivers and cultural knowledge. But it also sits at the crossroads of armed conflict, extractive projects and illicit economies. Armed groups have long used the Putumayo River as a trafficking route toward Brazil and Ecuador, where weak controls make it easier to move cocaine, minerals and laundered money.

An environmental defender there, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisals, told AP this has created one of the most hostile climates in the country.

“Defending rights here means living under permanent threat,” the source said. “We face pressure from illegal mining, oil projects tied to armed groups, deforestation and coca cultivation. Speaking out often makes you a military target.”

Andrew Miller of the nonprofit Amazon Watch said transnational criminal networks involved in drug, gold and timber trafficking have become a major force behind threats — and often deadly attacks — against environmental defenders.

“The security situation for defenders across the Amazon is increasingly precarious,” Miller said.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

A recent analysis of the Sapphire Canyon mudstone core, drilled by NASA’s Perseverance rover in July 2024, adds new and convincing evidence to the ongoing search for life on Mars.

The study describes minerals and textures that – on Earth – are often linked to microbial activity. At the same time, the authors stress that some unknown, nonbiological chemistry could also explain the signals.

“This finding by Perseverance is the closest we have ever come to discovering life on Mars. The identification of a potential biosignature on the Red Planet is a groundbreaking discovery, and one that will advance our understanding of Mars,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy.

“NASA’s commitment to conducting Gold Standard Science will continue as we pursue our goal of putting American boots on Mars’ rocky soil.”

The core was taken from a rock named “Chevaya Falls” in Neretva Vallis, an ancient river channel about a quarter mile wide that once fed Jezero Crater’s lake.

After drilling, Perseverance sealed the sample for possible return to Earth, where laboratory instruments can perform tests far beyond the rover’s onboard capabilities.

Inside the Martian mudstone

Lead author Joel A. Hurowitz of Stony Brook University (SBU) reports a fine-grained mudstone with circular reaction fronts informally called leopard spots, plus small nodules embedded in layered sediments.

Perseverance’s SHERLOC and PIXL instruments mapped organic carbon with phosphate, iron, and sulfur arranged in distinct, repeating patterns.

Two minerals stand out: vivianite and greigite. Vivianite is an iron phosphate, while greigite is an iron sulfide associated with iron and sulfur cycling in oxygen-poor settings.

These features show up in rocks that settled from water, not in lavas. The site on Mars lies along Bright Angel, a set of outcrops that preserve layers and veins consistent with slow changes after the mud was laid down.

Textures and chemistry point to low temperature reactions that reorganized elements already present in the mud.

That detail matters because low temperatures fit environments that life can handle, while very hot conditions tend to erase delicate signals.

Earth microbes leave similar traces

On Earth, vivianite often forms where microbes reduce iron in water-rich sediments and trap phosphorus in blue-green nodules.

Laboratory and field work document biologically mediated vivianite through extracellular electron transfer.

Greigite frequently appears where sulfate reducing bacteria drive chemistry in anoxic muds. In controlled experiments, greigite was detected only in live biotic setups after months of incubation.

The Martian rock shows rims rich in vivianite surrounding small cores enriched in greigite. That bullseye pattern matches a sequence of electron transfer reactions seen in some Earth sediments.

None of this proves metabolism happened in Bright Angel mud, but it shows the chemistry is right for it. That is a subtle point, and it is the reason scientists keep the language cautious.

Evidence of life on Mars

A potential biosignature is a feature that might have a biological origin but still needs more data to rule out nonbiological sources.

NASA points mission teams and the public to the Confidence of Life Detection, or CoLD scale, which encourages staged claims and independent checks.

The CoLD mindset is simple in practice. First detect a signal, then exclude contamination, then tackle alternatives, and only then talk about life on Mars with high confidence.

The Bright Angel work sits early on that ladder. It clears several necessary steps but leaves demanding tests for the lab.

Organic compounds can also arrive by meteorites or form without biology. The authors note those routes and describe how future analyses could tell paths apart.

Organic signals, but no certainty

The Mars rover detected organic carbon in several targets within Bright Angel. Reaction fronts rimmed with vivianite surround cores richer in greigite, a pairing consistent with iron and sulfur cycling recorded in the paper.

Mineral veins include calcium sulfate, while the mudstone remains fine-grained and low in magnesium and manganese. There is no sign of intense heating that would reset the rock or scramble tiny textures.

The outcrop sits within layered sediments deposited by water flowing through Neretva Vallis. That channel spans roughly a quarter mile across, which implies sustained flow into Jezero’s ancient lake.

Low temperature context favors life-compatible chemistry, but it does not require life. Abiotic organics and mineral reactions can sometimes copy the same shapes and signals.

Not proof, but potential life on Mars

“It’s not life itself,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, stressing that this is a potential biosignature, not proof of life. The lead author echoed that caution. 

“We cannot claim this is more than a potential biosignature,” said Hurowitz. Other officials also underscored the stakes and the limits. 

“[But] this very well could be the clearest sign of life that we’ve ever found on Mars,” said Sean Duffy, acting NASA administrator.

Caution is not hedging for its own sake. It is how science avoids false alarms when the question is this important.

Implications for habitability

If the vivianite and greigite formed through microbe-like metabolisms, then Bright Angel captures a period when surface waters supported the same chemical strategies some cells use for energy today.

That would extend Mars’s habitability into a window when this part of Jezero was still wet.

If abiotic paths made the same pattern, the rock still records redox organization of iron, sulfur, and phosphorus in Martian mud. That is a window into how the planet cycles key elements without biology.

Either outcome matters for the bigger story. Mars did not just dry out, it changed its chemistry over time, and these samples let researchers track that change layer by layer.

The work also flags what to measure next. Isotopes, microtextures, and the exact structure of carbon in the core can separate metabolic signatures from chemical lookalikes.

Search for life on Mars moves forward

The authors lay out lab experiments and field analogs on Earth to test whether nonbiological reactions can reproduce these textures and mineral pairings.

They also point to analyses that require the sample in a clean Earth lab, including isotope ratios that biology tends to skew.

Sample return planning will shape how fast those tests happen. Meanwhile, the rover can keep mapping where these features cluster and how they relate to other rock units nearby.

PIXL and SHERLOC have shown enough sensitivity to guide that search. The pairing of elemental maps and Raman detections gives a consistent picture that can be applied to other outcrops.

As new targets are logged, the CoLD framework will help communicate progress without getting ahead of the data. That is how a potential biosignature becomes a result people can trust.

The study is published in the journal Nature.

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