Space

How Fast Can 50 Snails Get in Space?

In almost two hours

By Lucian Dorneanu, Science Editor

14th of May 2007, 06:57 GMT

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Snails are famous for their "incredible" speed and they never seem to be in a hurry. Well, this time they seem to be pretty fast when it comes to getting in the outer space. It took them almost two hours to get to the International Space Station (ISS).

They have been launched on Friday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, in a Russian spacecraft. Called Progress 25, they are the work horses of the European and US space programs, and carried more than 2.5 tons of fuel, air, water and other supplies and equipment aboard.

The content of the ship was a bit unusual: 1,050 pounds of propellant, almost 100 pounds of air, more than 925 pounds of water, 3,042 pounds of dry cargo and 50 snails. The unmanned ship has delivered the snails to the ISS labs, where they will be studied in experiments on tissue regeneration in zero gravity.

Snails aren't the only funny thing that was sent into space this week-end. The rocket also contained a fine selection of movies on DVDs, mainly comedies that the astronauts request to help them relax.

Experts agreed they need a break: "The psychological support team is also sending several magazines and books requested by crewmembers," an institute spokesman said.

The three astronauts on board the ISS, Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov and NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, have been staying on the space station for almost five months, since December 2006.

The spacecraft used the automated Kurs system to dock at the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module. Human intervention was not necessary, but just in case, Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin was present at the manual TORU docking system controls.

TAGS:

ISS | astronauts | DVD | experiment

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