Inflated craft is holding up, but fate of guests remains uncertain.

Nearly a month after the successful launch and deployment of an inflatable model space hotel (see ‘The inflatable space hotel’), the craft is still going strong — but the fate of its residents is as yet unknown.

The spacecraft, a 4-metre-wide watermelon-shaped hostelry called Genesis I, was launched on 12 July by US hotelier and millionaire Robert Bigelow. His company, Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace, aims to use the test-run to develop inflatable space habitats for humans.

But for the meantime, this craft carries four Madagascar hissing cockroaches and roughly 20 Mexican jumping beans. News@nature.com set out to discover what had become of these hapless guests, and take a look at the state of their hotel room.

Discover what we found out here.