03 October 2017
A dozen silkworms whose parents took a spin around the planet have been donated to a Hong Kong secondary school. Last October, six of the insects were taken on-board the Shenzhou-11 spacecraft, China’s sixth manned space mission and its longest to date, which saw two astronauts, Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong, spend 30 days orbiting in the Tiangong-2 space laboratory. On 2 October, the astronauts donated the descendants of these “space silkworms” to the school, who will study them to see if the favourable variation will be inherited.
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