Russian space scientists announced on Thursday a new breakthrough in a long pedigree of firsts: the birth of 30 grandchildren of a "space cockroach" who spent 12 days in orbit.

Russian space scientists announced on Thursday a new breakthrough in a long pedigree of firsts: the birth of 30 grandchildren of a "space cockroach" who spent 12 days in orbit.

Interfax news agency reported the birth of 30 healthy descendants of the pioneering cockroach Nadezhda (Hope), who conceived last September in an orbiting laboratory named Foton-M.

Unlike Nadezhda's children, who showed a faster maturation rate than normal, the grandchildren correspond completely to the average household cockroach, said Dmitry Atyakshin, a scientist at Voronezh Medical Academy, 470 kilometres (290 miles) south of Moscow.

"These are descendants of those cockroaches who were conceived in space and were born after returning to Earth ... In all particulars they accord with standards on Earth," he told the news agency.

The grandmother was the latest in a long line of animals to have been tested for their survival skills in space. Cockroaches are not known to inhabit the International Space Station, a long-term home to humans in space.