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NASA's mission to the International Space Station with shuttle Endeavor, is on it's eleventh day and is expected to come back to Earth this Sunday. On the return will be tiny cow embryos, point-one millimeters in diameter and made up of over 100 cells. University of Florida Animal Science Researcher, Pete Hansen, says these embryos are fixed with a preservative to see what stage of development the embryos were in on the ninth day of travel.

Hansen says the hypothesis is that the lack of gravity will prevent normal stages of development. He says his team is interested in understanding the basic processes of embryo growth and how they are affected by gravity. Once the embryos return to Earth, half will be going to the U-S Department of Agriculture, and the rest will come back here, to the University of Florida, for research on what Hansen calls "programmed cell death".

Hansen says gravity can significantly alter the development of embryos.

Hansen says from this research scientists will be able to tell whether it's possible for life to occur in outer space and whether or not life that developed here on earth can take place in a microgravity environment. But Hansen says his team is mainly interested in the processes of basic embryonic growth.

Hansen says they chose the cow embryo because they are more similar to the human embryo. Hansen says this isn't the first time UF has participated in space research, and it won't be the last. With only nine more shuttles expected to launch from the Kennedy Space Center, Hansen hopes UF can continue to participate in more space research.