SpaceX ready to launch baby squid, tardigrades and solar panels

Along for the ride are 5,000 tardigrades, also known as water bears, and 128 baby glow-in-the-dark bobtail squid.

Both will be involved in experiments on the space station, including assessing how water bears tolerate the space environment. Researchers also wants to know if the lack of gravity affects symbiotic relationships between the squid and beneficial microbes.

Hundreds of scientific experiments are underway each day on the space station; it’s an orbiting laboratory, after all. Astronauts oversee these experiments and report back their observations to scientists on Earth. The research…