Worms in space – British creatures board Atlantis space shuttle
Microscopic worms taken from Bristol rubbish tip for study in
space station lab Space shuttle Atlantis blasts off on space
station supply run Link to video: Atlantis blasts off on space
station supply run  Britain's aspirations to become a
spacefaring nation inched a little closer tonight as thousands
of microscopic worms boarded the Atlantis space shuttle at Cape
Canaveral for a mission to the international space station.  The
diminutive space travellers are being flown into orbit as part
of research that scientists hope will help explain how
astronauts build and lose muscle as they circle the Earth.  The
test subjects, from a rubbish tip in Bristol, will be studied in
the weightless confines of the Japanese Kibo laboratory, one of
the most recent additions to the $100bn space station.
Predecessors of the latest batch of worms made news in 2003 when
they survived the Columbia space shuttle disaster. They were
discovered in a protective containe