May 30, 2011 - Guinea Pigs with the Right Stuff

Published in cooperation with The Planetary Society

Spend the year in space, one week at a time

Recent Weeks

May 14, 2012 - Monkey Nebula

May 7, 2012 - Getting a Grip on INTELSAT

April 30, 2012 - Dust in the Wind

April 23, 2012 - Celebrate Astronomy Day

April 16, 2012 - Rover Rides Again

April 9, 2012 - Mercury’s Marvelous Morphology

April 2, 2012 - A Matter of Truss

March 26, 2012 - Hubble Bubble

March 19, 2012 - Rocket Pioneer Centennial

March 12, 2012 - Southern Lights on Saturn

March 5, 2012 - A New Star in Town

February 27, 2012 - Hubble Upgrade

February 20, 2012 - Sideways Supernova

February 13, 2012 - Auroras Gone Wild

February 6, 2012 - Hubble Telescope Tune-Up

January 30, 2012 - Lunar Orbiter Liftoff

January 23, 2012 - Magellan Turns up the Stereo

January 16, 2012 - Southern Sibling Sees Stars

January 9, 2012 - Hitching a Ride Home

January 2, 2012 - Transforming the Space Frontier

December 26, 2011 - These Laws Can't Be Broken

December 19, 2011 - Long and Winding Road

December 12, 2011 - Blast from the Past

December 5, 2011 - It’s Just Like Folding a Map

November 28, 2011 - A Warmer, Wetter Mars

November 21, 2011 - Spy in the Sky

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2012 Desk Calendar

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Weekly photo essay
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The Week in Space

May 30 - June 5, 2011

Guinea Pigs with the Right Stuff On a slightly overcast Florida morning twenty years ago this week, the space shuttle Columbia thundered from the launch pad on the first Spacelab mission completely dedicated to life sciences. The seven astronauts of STS-40 spent nine days in orbit conducting medical studies on the effects of microgravity on several major body systems. Although the medical subjects included 30 rats and 2,500 jellyfish, the most interesting subjects were the seven human guinea pigs on board. The crew members volunteered themselves to be extensively tested and monitored before the mission, during the flight itself, and upon their return to Earth. The experiments of STS-40 added to the growing body of knowledge about the long-term effects of spaceflight on the human body.

Image credit: NASA