And you thought you were having a bad day in work...
Russian scientists are unable to get in contact with one of their satellites, which they sent into space from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 19th. The satellite wasn't just carrying any regular old cargo however, it was packed to the gills with sexually experimental geckos. Yeah, you read that right.
The Foton-M4 satellite was headed into space to help the team investigate the effects of weightlessness on the sex lives of the creatures, but all contact has been lost with the four females and one male on board. According to The Independent, a team of engineers are doing their best to get back in touch with the craft in case the loss of communication was not the only thing that went wrong and life support systems have also been disrupted.
Pic via Wikipedia
Yes, we too are asking what exactly you need to know about zero-gravity lizard sex, but hey, each to their own. The original plan was to land the satellite safely in Russia again, and there are other experiments on board that are less sexy, but given that they've lost contact with it, there's plenty of work to be done if they hope to get things back on track again.
Via The Independent. Main pic via Space Flight Insider/Roscosmos
