Students Smithsonian Education  Arabella and Anita have the
right stuff. These two common spiders were NASA’s first eight-
legged astronauts! Anita and Arabella got their mission because
a high-school student named Judy Miles wondered if spiders could
spin webs in a weightless environment. She suggested sending
spiders into space to find out. NASA space scientists liked her
proposal and went to work designing special cages, lights, and
cameras.  On August 5, 1973, Arabella and Anita blasted off into
space on Skylab II. On her first day in orbit, Arabella didn’t
do well. She spun sloppy webs and obviously felt the effects of
weightlessness. However, by her third day in space, she was
spinning just as though she were back at home. Her webs were
finer in space, which was expected. But the pattern remained the
same. She proved that spiders can spin nearly Earth-like webs in
space.  Though Arabella and Anita have both died, their bodies
remain at the Smithsonian, memorialized for their small, vital
part in increasi