Lee Berger breaks silence on hominin fossil spaceflight

Project was “result of careful consideration” with “great care” taken to ensure safety, says palaeoanthropologist

South African palaeoanthropologist Lee Berger has responded for the first time to the heavy criticism of a project orchestrated by him that blasted two hominin fossils into space to promote science.

A Homo naledi metacarpal and Australopithecus sediba clavicle were launched into suborbital space aboard a Virgin Galactic commercial spacecraft earlier this month, in a move branded as “unnecessary”, “unethical” and “neocolonial” by scientists around the globe.