Nadezhda (cockroach)

Nadezhda

Other name(s)	Hope
Species	Cockroach
Breed	Common house cockroach
Born	Надежда
Nation from	Russian
Notable role	Sent into space during the Foton-M bio-satellite flight
Years active	2007
Offspring	33

Nadezhda (Russian: Надежда, Hope) was a common house cockroach that was sent into space during the Foton-M bio-satellite flight between September 14 and 26, 2007 by Russian scientists. Scientists monitoring the mission from Voronezh announced that Nadezhda had successfully given birth to 33 cockroaches, these 33 creatures being the first ever to be born in space, in conditions of microgravity. Nadezhda and the rest of creatures were traveling inside a sealed special container, and a video-camera was filming the whole process.^[1]

What was considered unnatural for the newborn creatures was that their carapace had darkened in colour much earlier, in comparison with natural-condition cockroaches who develop that darker tone later in their life cycle. But the rest of the conditions and capacities of the cockroaches remained normal.

Later it was reported that Nadezhda's grandchildren, born to one of the space-born creatures, had given birth on earth to normal cockroaches, with a life cycle and development pretty similar to that of any other cockroach, unlike their parents.

References

1. ""Hope" the Russian cockroach gives birth to first space babies | Science | RIA Novosti". en.ria.ru. Retrieved 2014-02-09.