Video: Chinese astronauts play with silkworms in space

The silkworm was released into a gravityless environment trying to crawl on the Chinese astronaut's hand but was flung out soon after.

Astronaut Canh Hai Bang is playing with the bathing child.

China has just released a video recording the scene of its astronauts playing with a silkworm in the Thien Cung 2 Space Station, Mirror on October 20 reported.

The video shows that astronaut Hai Bang, the commander of space missions, releases silkworms into a zero gravity environment in the space station.

"The silkworm tries to crawl on the astronaut's hand, but it pops out as soon as it hits," said Zhu Fengdeng, an engineer at the Center for Space Control.

This is one of six silkworms brought into space to perform experiments proposed by Hong Kong students. Its purpose is to study larval variation in a zero gravity environment.