Skylab Spider Experiment

The SL-3 mission (the second manned Skylab mission; sometimes called "Skylab 2") performed a number of life sciences experiments, including one studying the effects of weightlessness on spiderweb formation. Two spiders, Arabella (displayed at the USSRC) and Anita (displayed here at Udvar-Hazy) were launched with the crew, who studied their adaptation to weightlessness.

For a scientific overview of the spider experiment (named "ED52"), see the Life Sciences Data Archive. For more general descriptions of how the experiment was carried out, see Skylab, Our First Space Station or Skylab, Classroom in Space. A photo of Arabella spinning a web in zero-G.