Astronaut Worms Return from Space

After 6 months in orbit, Caenorhabditis elegans return to Earth—alive and well.

Written byJef Akst

| 1 min read

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WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, NASA / IMAX

It was the longest successful space flight yet for the worms: six months in low Earth orbit (160–2,000 kilometers, or 100–1,240 miles above the Earth's surface) being fed and cared for entirely by a remotely-operated, automated culture system.

The system, which could allow this common laboratory model to participate in many future far-reaching and unmanned space adventures, automatically transferred some of the animals to fresh liquid culture media each month. The system also filmed the worm’s swimming behavior throughout the journey, meaning the scientists could collect data even if the worms never returned. "Because we had the bad experience with shuttle STS-107, which of course is the shuttle that broke up, we are keen [to] avoid being dependent on getting the worms back," Nathaniel Szewczyk ...

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Meet the Author

Jef Akst
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Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.
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