First Web in Space Was Spun in 1973 by Common Cross Spider Arabella

Summary: The first web in space was spun in 1973 by common cross spider Arabella, who participated with Anita, another common cross spider, in NASA’s Skylab 3.

common cross spider (Araneus diadematus) Arabella, the first spider to spin a web in space; MSFC Skylab Student Project Report (1974), figure 25, page 42: Public Domain, via NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center

The first web in space was spun in 1973 by common cross spider Arabella, who participated with another common cross spider, Anita, in NASA’s second manned mission at Skylab, the first United States space station.

The experiment in which Arabella and Anita participated, ED52 Web Formation, was one of 19 secondary school student proposals approved by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for performance on a Skylab mission. Judith S. Miles of Lexington High School, Lexington, Massachusetts, proposed studying the effect of weightlessness on spider web formation. The experiment was assigned to Skylab’s second manned mission, Skylab 3, designated as SL-3.

The Saturn IB (one B) launched Saturday, July 28, 1973, at 11:10:50 Coordinated Universal Time (7:10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time) from east central Florida’s Cape Kennedy (Cape Canaveral since Oct. 9, 1973). The launch vehicle carried the Apollo command and service module (Apollo CSM) for delivery to Skylab. The module’s occupants included a three-astronaut crew and, in separate vials, a pair of common cross spiders (Araneus diadematus) named Arabella and Anita. Three other species were also loaded into the module. Six pocket mice (Perognathus longimembris) and 180 fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) pupae were participants in the Circadian Periodicity Experiment (CPE-1). Two mummichog minnows (Fundular heteroclitus) and 50 minnow fish eggs also joined the crew as participants in disorientation or orientation in weightlessness.

Fourth moonwalker Alan LaVern Bean (March 15, 1932-May 26, 2018) was mission commander. Owen Kay Garriott (Nov. 22, 1930-April 15, 2019) was scientist-pilot, and Jack Robert Lousma (born Feb. 29, 1936) was the mission’s pilot. The Skylab 3 mission lasted 59 days 11 hours 9 minutes 1 second, ending with successful landing Tuesday, Sept. 25.

On Sunday, Aug. 5, Owen Garriott placed Arabella’s vial on a specially constructed screened cage. Several hours passed, with Arabella remaining ensconced within her small vial. The science pilot had to shake the vial to effect Arabella’s passage, albeit involuntary, into the cage. The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center’s Skylab Student Project Report, released August 1974, described the initial motor difficulties of the reluctant spider’s first encounter with movement in microgravity: “Arabella bounced back and forth moving erratically in a swimming motion before she affixed herself to the screen covering on the cage surface.”

The next day, Monday, Aug. 6, the crew noted a “rudimentary web” had been constructed in the cage’s corners. One day later, on Tuesday, Aug. 7, the crew reported that Arabella had completed her first web in space.

On Monday, Aug. 13, half of Arabella’s web was removed by Owen Garriott. Arabella responded by consuming the remainder. She refused to spin a new web until the scientist-pilot gave her water. Her new web, her second web in space, was removed by Owen Garriott on Tuesday, Aug. 21. The next day, Wednesday, Aug. 22, Arabella’s third web was discovered in the cage. Her third web was described as “her best to date.”

On Sunday, Aug. 26, Arabella was moved back into her transportation vial. Replacing Arabella in the cage, Anita displayed similar adjustments to moving and web-spinning in microgravity.

On Sunday, Sept. 16, Owen Garriott reported Anita’s death. He transferred her body from the cage to her transportation vial.

The Skylab 3 crew splashed down Tuesday, Sept. 25, at 22:19:51 UTC (6:19 p.m. EDT) in the Pacific Ocean, about 300 kilometers (186.4 miles) southwest of San Diego, southwestern California. After recovery, the crew discovered Arabella’s dead body in her transportation vial.

The MSFC Skylab Student Report stated that both Arabella and Anita “showed signs of dehydration.” The report found the symptoms to be “the only visible evidence of cause of their demise.”

The takeaway for the first web in space, spun in 1973 by common cross spider Arabella, is that Arabella and her companion, Anita, overcame initial difficulties with weightlessness, which jarred their movements and web construction, and displayed competency in their new environment.

Arabella rests on a web that she spun in microgravity: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, Public Domain, via NASA Life Sciences Data Archive

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

common cross spider (Araneus diadematus) Arabella, the first spider to spin a web in space; MSFC Skylab Student Project Report (1974), figure 25, page 42: Public Domain, via NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740025164.pdf

Arabella rests on a web that she spun in microgravity: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, Public Domain, via NASA Life Sciences Data Archive @ https://lsda.jsc.nasa.gov/PhotoGallery/detail_result/1507

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