In this edition of Science Saturday, we recap some of the major stories in technology and science of the past two weeks, ranging from Mars mission to China's COVID-19 vaccine.

Space X's futuristic Starship

Space X has successfully landed its futuristic Starship. This latest upgraded version of SpaceX's full-scale, stainless steel, bullet-shaped rocket ship soared more than six miles over the Gulf of Mexico before touchdown last Wednesday. The previous four test flights all failed. The company's founder Elon Musk intends to use the rocketship to land astronauts on the moon and send people to Mars.

Mars exploration

NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity has landed at a new airfield. This is its fifth flight, but this time, it was a one-way journey. The chopper lifted off from Wright Brothers Field, a dusty plain on the Red Planet, last Friday. It reached a place around 130 meters to the south, after finishing a 108-second flight. Before splashing down, Ingenuity took some high-resolution colored photos of this new area. Scientists say the successful flight gives them more confidence to land humans on another planet in the future.

Quantum computer breakthrough

Chinese researchers have made a new breakthrough in quantum computing technology. A 62-qubit programmable superconducting quantum processor contains the largest number of functional qubits so far in the world. This means it can accelerate the ability of classical computers in solving important social and economic problems. The team from the University of Science and Technology of China has named the processor after Zu Chongzhi, a 5th-century Chinese mathematician.

China's COVID -19 vaccine

The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved China's Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use. It is the first vaccine developed by a non-Western country to get WHO backing. The UN health organization says the vaccine has an estimated efficacy of nearly 80 percent for all age groups. The jab can also be stored easily, as it's an inactivated vaccine. The WHO's approval now allows the vaccine to be included in COVAX, a global initiative to provide free vaccines to poor countries.