For years, the grate question of space biology has not been whether we can have tomatoes and lettuce in orbit to populate other planets, but whether our bodies will remain functional after returning from the void of space. Something that especially interests us in order to be able to reproduce. And to solve it, China sent a female mouse to the Tiangong space station to see if she was later able to have offspring and if these came with any serious alteration.
Some historic offspring. The result of this trip to the Tiangong station has actually been a success, as on December 10, 2025, a laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) witnessed an apparently everyday but scientifically exceptional event: the birth of nine mouse pups.
The special thing, logically, was not the birth, but the fact that their mother had been in space for several weeks (even though with some problems) subjected to microgravity and cosmic radiation. Now, six of these pups have survived and are growing normally.
Scientists recently completed a study showing mice can reproduce in space. Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences sent mice to a space station 400 kilometers above Earth and confirmed they successfully conceived and gave birth to healthy offspring. This is a critical step toward understanding the effects of cosmic radiation on mammalian reproduction and, ultimately, the possibility of long-duration space travel and colonization.
Cosmic radiation poses a significant threat. It’s a stream of high-energy particles that can cause double-strand breaks in DNA. Earth’s atmosphere shields us, but at 400 km, exposure dramatically increases.Researcher Wang Hongmei notes the viability of the offspring suggests mammals possess cellular repair mechanisms capable of mitigating damage during short-duration flights.
This research is part of a larger competition between the United States and China in space exploration. China previously achieved partial embryo progress in space with mice in 2020. Details of that 2020 study are available in Nature Space Reports. NASA conducted research on the International Space Station in 2019, analyzing bone density loss and muscle atrophy in mice exposed to the space habitat.
