Archaeologists are losing sight of this fact because of Virgin Galactic’s most recent spaceflights

Last week, Virgin Galactic completed another flight, sending three passengers and an instructor to the edge of space. But there were no living passengers on board the VSS lonliness Which had a lot of people in an uproar. instead of, Reports note Archaeologists around the world are upset that a passenger carried ancient human fossils into space on board.

Fossils taken aboard the VSS lonliness Some included Australopithecus sediba, which lived approximately two million years ago, according to researchers’ estimates. The second excavation was from Homo nalediIt is an ancient human species that lived 250 thousand years ago. Both species were discovered near Johannesburg in South Africa by teams led by Lee Berger.

In fact, it was Berger who obtained permission from the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) to export fossils that had been taken into space. They were carried on board by Tim Nash, a South African businessman and one of the three passengers on board lonliness.

Transporting these ancient human fossils into space was part of an elaborate propaganda campaign to draw attention to “science, exploration, the origins of man and South Africa.” Berger asked male. Despite the potential exposure it could have caused, archaeologists say the move endangered the remains and may have led to the loss of one of the key identifying references to a. SedibaThe shoulder bone that was sent into space was actually the first a. Sediba The fossil to be discovered, and thus a reference that helps in identifying the species.

Of course, this would likely have been a much different story had the voyage not been a success, not only because of the loss of life, but because of the potential loss of history if the voyage had not gone smoothly. Fortunately, this is not the case.

This is also not the first time we’ve seen ancient fossils transported into space. Previously, dinosaur fossils were ejected from Earth’s atmosphere. However, archaeologists are right to be upset. If the trip had gone poorly, Bones could have been lost here forever. A small but important part of history was lost with them.