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 to the Moscow Times as they prepared a joint statement with the ominously named Russian Institute of Biomedical Problems.
It is currently unclear if the sudden loss of control is at all related to the death of the Geckos. However earlier theories explaining the change in orbital trajectory and lack of contact were proposed as a possible space debris strike, or mechanical failure, which could have caused a knock-on failure in life support systems.
The Geckos, one of the on-board experiments to investigate the viability of zero-gravity reproduction, have yet to be examined for cause of death. The four females and one not-so-lucky male were reportedly unable to carry out their mission to see how microgravity had an effect on fertility and egg structure.
Four generations of Drosophila flies, microorganisms and plants were also sent into space. The fates of these other orbital sexplorers are not yet known.
Update 16:56 BST: The flies survived and reproduced!
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
