Two ancient human fossils belonging to Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi made a recent trip to suborbital space in a gesture that has roiled the scientific community.
On Sept. 8, 2023, an A. sediba shoulder bone and a H. naledi finger bone soared into the heavens aboard a Virgin Galactic private spacecraft, alongside three commercial passengers, the third such crew in Virgin’s history. The fossils spent about 5 minutes in space while stowed inside a cigar-shaped, carbon fiber container in the possession of one of the paying passengers – Tim Nash, a South African businessman and one of Virgin Galactic’s early investors.
He's also a friend of Lee Berger, the famed paleoanthropologist who led the discovery of the bones near Johannesburg in South Africa.
