Two individual jumping spiders ventured beyond Earth in 2012, when they were taken on board the International Space Station. The ‘spidernauts’ – a Johnson jumping spider named Nefertiti and a zebra jumping spider called Cleopatra – were studied to see how they adapted to microgravity.
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It didn’t take long before the astronauts observed Nefertiti successfully hunting her fruit fly prey, despite any potentially disorientating effects.
The mission set a record for longest time spent in space by a spider (100 days). While Cleopatra died on returning to Earth, Nefertiti would also become the first spider to survive the voyage home, and successfully readjusted to gravity.
After her marathon mission, she was destined for a long, cosy retirement. She was put on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, where she was placed in a custom enclosure and died four days later.
Top image: Nefertiti, the female Johnson Jumping Spider, in a test tube as she was displayed to the public at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History on 29th November 2012 in Washington, D.C. Credit: Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images
