Ants in space

摘要

Christmas has finally come to the International Space Station. A commercial Cygnus craft docked with the orbiting outpost on Sunday, bringing gifts from home, fresh fruit from NASA and an ant farm to the six astronauts eagerly awaiting its arrival. Cygnus took off from Wallops Island, Virginia, on 9 January, operated by private company Orbital Sciences of Dulles. After a few delays due to equipment glitches and bad weather, this week's docking means that Orbital at last joins its rival, SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, in conducting official resupply missions to the station.