The Economic Times

In 1998, NASA flew crickets on Neurolab to study how spaceflight affects developing nervous systems; across the 16-day mission, they joined about 2,000 animals in space

During the Neurolab mission, the space shuttle Columbia hosted 2,000 animals, crickets being one of them, to examine spaceflight's impacts on brain and nervous system development. By focusing on the crickets' fundamental gravity-sensing mechanisms, scientists identified key alterations in cellular processes. These discoveries on neuropeptide and interneuron dynamics are vital to comprehending how space travel affects human balance and the challenges faced by astronauts.