Blessed Events on Columbia: 2 Baby Newts, 3 Infant Fish

The shuttle Columbia, already jammed with jellyfish, goldfish, guppies and salamanders, gained more passengers Saturday--two new newts and three fish.

Japan’s first female astronaut, Dr. Chiaki Mukai, spotted the five freshly laid eggs less than a day into the scheduled two-week laboratory research mission.

Four female Japanese red-bellied newts and four Japanese Medaka fish--two male and two female--are among thousands of aquatic animals flying on Columbia as part of space fertilization and developmental studies.

The Medaka, a guppy-like fish, were not swimming in circles endlessly as many other fish do in space, and that left them open for more important matters, like mating. They didn’t waste any time.

“We’re very happy,” Japanese project scientist Shunji Nagaoka said after learning of the new arrivals.

Biologists interested in fish reproduction chose Medaka that seemed to be resistant to the common looping behavior. Nagaoka said experimenters hope to have more than 100 Medaka eggs laid in orbit; it takes about a week for the eggs to hatch.

Researchers stowed 340 Medaka eggs aboard Columbia before liftoff Friday.

As for the newts, biologists injected hormones into two of the animals before the flight to induce egg-laying. One of the seven astronauts will inject the other two newts early this week.

Nagaoka said he suspects that the vibration of the shuttle launch may have prompted the early newt egg-laying. He is hoping for 200 to 300 more new newt eggs before Columbia is scheduled to return to Earth on July 22. The shuttle was launched with 144 newt eggs handpicked by researchers.