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from the to-boldly-go-where-geckos-had-not-gone-before dept.
For three days in late July, our eyes collectively turned skyward. We, as a species, sat helpless, united in hope that a satellite full of geckos tasked with a month-long sex romp would be safely returned to orbit—and indeed to Earth—after the Russian space ministry lost control of it. Eventually, Roscosmos regained control of the satellite, and today Foton-M4 touched down in Orenberg, Southern Russia, to worldwide jubilation.
It is thus, with heavy hearts, we report that all five of the Geckos on-board died, according to the Russian space agency. The sad news was confirmed by Roscosmos ( https://twitter.com/mattb0401/status/506451596151382018 ) to the Moscow Times as they prepared a joint statement with the ominously named Russian Institute of Biomedical Problems.
These geckos died in the cause of science, for the greater good, etc. A toast to these pioneering geckos! Four generations of Drosophila flies, microorganisms and plants were also sent into space. Update 16:56 BST: The flies survived and reproduced!
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-09/01/rip-space-sex-geckos
(Score: 1) by ld a, b on Tuesday September 02 2014, @10:37PM
You mean we didn't do this before?
What the hell are they doing in the ISS?
A long term experiment with fruit flies would be pretty high on my list. Who knows what cool 0g flight adaptations they'd develop.
Well, I guess catching floating juice bubbles with your mouth is higher on our priority list as species.
10 little-endian boys went out to dine, a big-endian carp ate one, and then there were -246.