Year-ender: Top 8 science news from 2024 — from the eclipse, to NASA mission and Sunita Williams stuck in space

Year-ender 2024: The year 2024 was choc full of incredible development in the space and science sectors wordwide. Livemint looks at the top eight such stories through the year, including the once-in-a-lifetime North American coast-to-coast eclipse, NASA's decision to delay its Artemis manned and unmanned Moon missions, contact with the far-in-space Voyager 1, and Sunita Williams' space odessey. The Indian Space Research Organisation's Chandrayaan-3 moon mission, which soft landed on Moon's south pole last year, send back data in August 2024 supporting the theory that Earth's satellite was once covered in an ocean of magma, an analysis published in the journal Nature revealed. From 8 days to 8 months — Sunita Williams, Barry Wilmore stuck in space till 2025 NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore took off for the ISS on June 5 — a mission that was supposed to last eight days, before returning back to earth. Gaganyaan’s unmanned mission likely in March next year ISRO's Gaganyaan unmanned mission is likely to begin as early as March next year to prepare for India’s most ambitious space project, its manned mission in 2026.