In 1991. Scientists launched 2,478 jellyfish polyps into space on the space shuttle Columbia. Astronauts induced these polyps to strobilate and produce baby jellyfish then monitored their development to adulthood.

The purpose of the experiment was to study how the lack of gravity in space effects jellyfish development and to determine whether adult jellyfish would behave differently once back in the gravity of Earth.

Over the course of the mission, the creatures proliferated: By mission's close, there were some 60,000 jellies orbiting Earth.