Vertebrate Biology in Microgravity
By Richard J. Wassersug
Basic questions about how complex organisms respond to spaceflight and microgravity can only be answered by long-term study
This Article From Issue
January-February 2001
Volume 89, Number 1
Page 46
DOI: 10.1511/2001.14.46
Space biology is a young science, having come into existence less than a half-century ago. Yet it is almost as old as spaceflight itself, for it was a mere 30 days after Sputnik was launched in October 1957 that the Siberian dog Laika was flying laps around our planet. Since then people have visited the moon and have lived in space for more than a year. Still, our understanding of how spaceflight affects living organisms remains rudimentary.
Photograph courtesy of NASA Johnson Space Center.; Cartoon courtesy of Tribune Media Services.
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