The new Sant Director of the National Museum of Natural History, Kirk Johnson, had only been on the job for 26 days when he got an urgent message about a special mission: retrieve the world’s first ...

WASHINGTON – The National Museum of Natural History announced that Nefertiti, the “spidernaut” died Monday before the museum opened to the public. A member of the Insect Zoo staff discovered the ...

The Smithsonian's exhibition of the first jumping spider to survive the trip to space has turned out to be short lived: The arachnid astronaut died just days after going on display. "It is with ...

Her name was Nefertiti. Her species was Phidippus johnsoni. She was the first jumping spider to make it all the way to space and live to tell about it. After spending 100 days aboard the ISS, she ...

She did it! A jumping spider named Nefertiti went all the way to space for 100 days, hung out on the ISS, and now the little spidernaut has re-entered our atmosphere. She has officially hung up her ...

This post has been corrected, as indicated below. WASHINGTON — The “spidernaut” has died. Just days after becoming a star attraction at the National Museum of Natural History’s Insect Zoo, the spider ...

We've heard tell of NASA's Spidernaut, a large robot designed to service spacecraft, but after finally seeing it in action we're not so sure humans are fully prepared to battle against robots in the ...

Nefertiti didn't spin a web like Charlotte; her kind never could. But the red-back jumping spider earned a classy nickname, Spidernaut, as well as a bunk at the popular Insect Zoo of the National ...

WASHINGTON -- Like some of capital’s other denizens, this town’s newest celebrity may give you the creeps. It’s a spider, and it’s drawing a lot of attention at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of ...