When the next Russian-built Soyuz capsule launches to the
International Space Station in October, it will deliver three
new crewmembers to the orbiting outpost. But the trio of
spaceflyers will be sharing their ride with some special cargo:
32 small fish for a science experiment at the space lab. NASA
astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Evgeny Tarelkin and
Oleg Novitskiy are scheduled to launch to the International
Space Station on Oct. 15 from the Baikonour Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan. Their Soyuz TMA-06M capsule will also be carrying 32
medaka fish — a type of fish native to Southeast Asia — to the
orbiting complex. "They'll be on our Soyuz with us — 32 fish,
plus the three of us," Ford told reporters in a news briefing
Thursday (July 26). The medakas will become part of an
experiment carried out on the station to investigate the effects
of microgravity on fish. The astronauts aboard the outpost will
monitor changes in the fish as they live in orbit. [7 Everyday
Things that Happen Strangely In Space] "