LOS ANGELES, July 17 (Xinhua) -- The Genesis-1 inflatable module, the world's first privately funded spacecraft, has a shoebox-size device for life experiment in orbit, U.S. space agency NASA said on Monday.

The payload, called "GeneBox," contains a miniature laboratory designed to analyze how the near weightlessness of space affects genes in microscopic cells and other small life forms, according to NASA's Ames Research Center based in Silicon Valley, California.

The micro-laboratory includes sensors and optical systems that can detect proteins and specific genetic activity. In about two weeks, the device will be activated and send its experiment data to Earth for further analysis.

The Genesis-1 spacecraft, built by Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace, is a one-third scale prototype of the commercial space station module in future.

Launched into orbit atop a Russian rocket on July 12, the module now seems to be in good shape, and is expected to circle the planet for several years while scientists study its durability.

On Monday, Bigelow Aerospace posted on its web site two video clips and two pictures taken by cameras aboard Genesis-1. The pictures show fully-deployed solar array and the spacecraft's inflatable skin, while a video footage displays the Sun, the Earthand stars from the view of Genesis-1.

This collaboration reflects the emerging focus on government and commercial partnerships in entrepreneurial space endeavors, NASA experts said.

"GeneBox is an example of a low-cost spacecraft model that we hope will provide a short turn-around time for scientists," said John Hines, the GeneBox project manager at the Ames Research Center.

The mission is set to verify the new small spacecraft's systemsand the procedures of the gene experiments, and in later flights, the micro-laboratory model will be housed in micro-satellites named Genesats, Hines added in a statement.

NASA is exploring this option as a potential inexpensive platform for conducting fundamental research to understand the mechanisms of bone and muscle loss and weakening of the immune system, he said. Enditem