Anita Spun Webs Aboard Skylab

In 1973, NASA sent two common cross spiders named Anita and Arabella aboard Skylab 3 to test whether spiders could build webs in weightlessness. A high school student proposed the experiment, which showed that the spiders adapted and successfully spun webs during the 59-day mission. Both spiders died in space, but astronauts returned their remains and the experiment equipment to Earth. Anita's body now sits preserved in formalin at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia.

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