Vertebrate Biology in Microgravity

Basic questions about how complex organisms respond to spaceflight and microgravity can only be answered by long-term study

Biology Medicine

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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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