Some 50 snails would go up with the regular cargo on the Progress spacecraft on February 28, for an experiment that would allow scientists to better investigate the effects weightlessness has on human vestibular apparatus.

Taking care of the snails could even prove an uplift to the ISS team, Russia's cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and US astronaut Leroy Chiao, the Roskosmos said.

"The cosmonauts themselves said that even an experiment of growing beans on the station was a serious psychological support for them, and experiments with living creatures could prove an even better one," the statement read.

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