Three chickens which traveled 108 orbits of the Earth as eggs aboard China's third unmanned spaceship "Shenzhou III" hatched on Tuesday in a laboratory in Beijing.

The chickens, one female and two male, hatched from nine eggs which made the seven-day space flight that ended on April 1, the Beijing Daily said Wednesday.

The chickens, kept in a laboratory in the China University of Agriculture, belong to a black-boned species native to China's Jiangxi, Guangdong and Fujian provinces.

Yang Ning, a professor with the university and head of the research team, said they chose black-boned chickens because of their very pure bloodline and that any genetic variation due to spaceflight would easily be tracked.

Yang said it was lucky that the chickens were of sexes, making it possible for further reproduction and greatly facilitating their research.

He said the project was of great value in the research of genetic theories and breeding technology, and may prove of great economic value as well.

Yang added that the birth of chickens also showed the sophistication of the life support system of "Shenzhou III".

(China Daily April 25, 2002)