Russian space scientists announced on Thursday a new breakthrough in a long pedigree of firsts: the birth of 30 grandchildren of a “space cockroach” who spent 12 days in orbit.

Interfax news agency reported the birth of 30 healthy descendants of the pioneering cockroach Nadezhda (Hope), who conceived last September in an orbiting laboratory named Foton-M.

Unlike Nadezhdas children, who showed a faster maturation rate than normal, the grandchildren correspond completely to the average household cockroach, said Dmitry Atyakshin, a scientist at Voronezh Medical Academy, 470 kilometres (290 miles) south of Moscow.

“These are descendants of those cockroaches who were conceived in space and were born after returning to Earth…In all particulars they accord with standards on Earth,” he told the news agency.

The grandmother was the latest in a long line of animals to have been tested for their survival skills in space. Cockroaches are not known to inhabit the International Space Station, a long-term home to humans in space.

俄羅斯太空科學(xué)家于本周四宣布了一項(xiàng)動(dòng)物試驗(yàn)的最新突破：曾經(jīng)在太空遨游12天的“太空蟑螂”有了30個(gè)孫輩。

據(jù)俄羅斯國(guó)際文傳電訊社報(bào)道，這30只健康的孫輩蟑螂是太空蟑螂先驅(qū)“希望”的后代?！跋Ｍ笔侨ツ?月在Foton-M繞道實(shí)驗(yàn)室中受孕的。

俄羅斯沃羅涅什醫(yī)學(xué)院的科學(xué)家迪米瑞·阿季亞克欣表示，與“希望”的子女不同，她的孫輩與普通常見(jiàn)的蟑螂完全一樣，而她的子女要比普通蟑螂發(fā)育快得多。沃羅涅什醫(yī)學(xué)院位于莫斯科以南470公里處。

他對(duì)記者說(shuō)：“這些孫輩是在太空中受孕的蟑螂返回地球之后產(chǎn)下的。其細(xì)部特征與地球上的蟑螂基本一致。”

這只蟑螂奶奶是諸多參與太空生存技能測(cè)試動(dòng)物中的新進(jìn)成員?？茖W(xué)家之前不知道蟑螂是否能在國(guó)際空間站生活。國(guó)際空間站長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)都只是人類的太空家園，沒(méi)聽(tīng)說(shuō)過(guò)有蟑螂在那里寄居。