Skylab

Pictures 1 and 2 show samples of Bacillus Subtillus grown during the first performance of Robert Staehle's experiment (ED-31) aboard Skylab. Pictures 3 and 4 show colonies of the same bacteria that developed during the second performance of the experiment. The experiment ED-31 was proposed by Robert L. Staehle of Rochester, New York to determine the effect of the Skylab environment (particularly weightlessness) on the survival, growth rates, and mutations of certain bacteria and spores.