Russia has lost a satellite full of geckos

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Forget the stuff in Ukraine, this is serious!

Russian research satellite Foton-M4 was launched last Saturday (19 July) with a precious cargo of five geckos, insects and plants on board.

The orbiting geckos were expected to mate, allowing scientists from Russia’s Institute of Medico-Biological Problems to determine the effects of weightlessness on reptile reproduction. But the research stalled when scientists reported on Thursday that their gecko sex satellite had gone AWOL and was not responding to commands. Video footage of out-of-this-world gecko sex is still reaching Earth but if contact is not re-established the geckos will die from hunger in a few months.

This is one of a number of recent calamities in the Russian space program.

http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20142607-25927.html

 

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Presumably they would have been allowed to starve to death after the experiment was over anyway?

Nope their escape module would have brought them back just like it did for the newts, lizards, Mongolian gerbils, slugs, butterflies and spiders they sent up in 2007.

Russia actually treats the return of animals sent to space very seriously, after the dog Laika (first animal to orbit the earth) died aboard Sputnik 2 the was a lot of public dismay about it, she even has a monument to her lol (Sputnik 2 was never even designed to be retrieved, they underestimated public opinion on animal cosmonauts).

The are actually rumours coming out that they are looking into the feasibility of a manned or unmanned rescue mission for the geckos lol.