Painted Lady Butterflies in Space! On November 16, 2009, larvae that hatched six days earlier flew aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station. The larvae successfully fed, grew, formed chrysalises, and emerged as adult butterflies. The historic space experiment concluded on December 10, 2009. However, photos and video from the mission will continue to be available on this website for students to compare to their live organisms on Earth.

This project is funded by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI), and is a partnership of NSBRI, BioServe Space Technologies (University of Colorado) and Baylor College of Medicine. Additional support provided by Houston Endowment Inc. and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Contest Guidelines

Poster Template

Click here to download the entire free Butterflies in Space Teacher's Guide and to register your classes for updates about the mission.

Teacher Discussion

Butterflies in Space Photo Gallery
View the latest images from space on flickr!

Larvae hatched on November 10th, 2009.
They were 6 days old at launch.

Daily Photos from Space
(PowerPoint format)

• 2009-11-18
• 2009-11-19
• 2009-11-20
• 2009-11-21
• 2009-11-22
• 2009-11-23
• 2009-11-24
• 2009-11-25
• 2009-11-26
• 2009-11-27
• 2009-11-28
• 2009-11-29
• 2009-11-30
• 2009-12-01
• 2009-12-02
• 2009-12-03
• 2009-12-04
• 2009-12-05
• 2009-12-06
• 2009-12-07
• 2009-12-08
• 2009-12-09
• 2009-12-10
• 2009-12-11

Ground-based Experiment
Photo Archive
Larvae hatched on November 9th, 2009. They were 7 days old at launch.

STS-129 Mission Photos (NASA)

Space Butterfly Locator

Podcast: EarthSky

Follow the current "butterflynauts" on Facebook and Twitter!

Podcast Plus Lessons:
A new online series of podcasts and supplementary standards-based educational activities, research information, and links. (sponsored by NSBRI)