GG
I'm sure you'll agree that this is the worst tragedy of our times.
URL:
http://mashable.com/2014/07/25/russia-geckos-space/
Text:
Russia's Experimental Sex Geckos Are Lost in Space
Talk about space oddity.
Russian scientists have lost contact with a biosatellite containing five geckos as part of a sex study on living organisms. The flight was intended to be a 60-day mission which launched last week on July 19 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reports. Communication with the spacecraft was lost the same day it launched.
See also: 8 Facts About Space That Will Rock Your World
The geckos, four females and one very lucky male, were packed into the Foton-M4 spacecraft so that scientist could study the effects of weightlessness on sex life and the ability to reproduce.
Despite floating aimlessly in zero gravity, the Russian Federal Space Agency said in a statement to RIA Novosti that the biosatellite "can operate autonomously for a long time," thanks to telemetry data. In other words, it can continue to run its course for the time being.
According to a spokesperson for Russia's Institute of Medico-Biological Problems, which is running the sex gecko experiment, the equipment is operating in automatic mode.
However, if contact is not restored and control of engines regained, the ship will not be able to safely return to southern Russia as planned and the reptiles will run out of their two-month food supply.
Houston's problems have nothing on this.
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