<P> Japan launched its first animals, a species of newt, into space on 18 March 1995 aboard the Space Flyer Unit . </P> <P> During the 1990s the U.S. carried crickets, mice, rats, frogs, newts, fruit flies, snails, carp, medaka, oyster toadfish, sea urchins, swordtail fish, gypsy moth eggs, stick insect eggs, brine shrimp (Artemia salina), quail eggs, and jellyfish aboard Space Shuttles . </P> <P> The last flight of Columbia in 2003 carried silkworms, garden orb spiders, carpenter bees, harvester ants, and Japanese killifish (medaka). Nematodes (C. elegans) from one experiment were found still alive in the debris after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster . </P> <P> C. elegans are also part of experiments aboard the International Space Station as well as research using quail eggs . </P>

When did the last rocket go into space