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Spaceflight research

C. elegans made news when specimens were discovered to have survived the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in February 2003. Later, in January 2009, live samples of C. elegans from the University of Nottingham were announced to be spending two weeks on the International Space Station that October, in a space research project to explore the effects of zero gravity on muscle development and physiology. The research was primarily about genetic basis of muscle atrophy, which relates to spaceflight or being bed-ridden, geriatric, or diabetic. Descendants of the worms aboard Columbia in 2003 were launched into space on Endeavour for the STS-134 mission. Additional experiments on muscle dystrophy during spaceflight were carried on board the ISS starting in 2018. It was shown that the genes affecting muscles attachment were expressed less in space. However, it has yet to be seen if this affects muscle strength.