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- BBC World, @bbc_ciencia
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All five lizards sent into space on a Russian satellite as part of a sexual experiment have died, according to Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency.
Roscosmos explained in a statement that the Foton-M4 probe returned to Earth this Monday.
As reported by Russian news agencies, experts say the reptiles may have frozen to death when the heating system failed.
They had been sent into space as part of a study on the effect of weightlessness on the sexual life and development of animals.
«We can safely say that they died at least a week before landing because their bodies were partly mummified,» an official with Russia’s Institute of Biological and Medical Problems told the Itar-Tass news agency.
survivors
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The reptiles had been sent into space to study how they reproduce without gravity.
Although scientists have not yet defined the cause of death of the lizards, Interfax, another news agency, quotes an expert working on the mission as suggesting that preliminary information indicates that the animals may have died after a failure of the satellite heating system.
Instead, the fruit flies that were also traveling on the spacecraft did survive and reproduce, Roscosmos says in its statement.
The six-ton satellite was launched on July 19 and was meant to spend two months in space for experiments. However, it returned after 44 days in orbit.
Shortly after launch, Roscosmos lost contact with the ship, but regained contact almost immediately.