The space shuttle Columbia blasted off last Friday, with a crew of seven and a menagerie of creatures aboard, on a mission to probe the inner workings of the human brain and nervous system. The winged spaceship, the oldest of NASA's four shuttles, rocketed off its Florida launch pad at 2:19 p.m. ET, a day later than planned due to a communications glitch. The shuttle crew and more than 2,000 creatures, including rats, mice, swordtail fish, crickets and snails, were to serve as test subjects for a $99 million research program to understand the effects of space travel on the nervous system.

(c) Reuters