The International Space Station lost communication with ground controllers on Tuesday but its commander says the crew is fine, NASA said. It blamed a problem in a data relay system. NASA said flight controllers in Houston were updating software on board the station's flight computers when one of the station's data relay systems malfunctioned. The primary computer that controls critical station functions defaulted to a backup computer, but it was not letting the station communicate with NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, the US space agency said.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs. The Kraken wakes: first images of giant squid filmed in deep ocean