Millions Spent on Faulty Orbital Lizard Sex

From the Washington Post:

There is a lizard sex satellite floating in space and Russia no longer has it under control

Space lizards, out of control. (EPA/Luong Thai Linh)

At this very moment, a Russian satellite full of geckos -- (possibly) having sex -- is floating around in space -- and mission control has lost the ability to control it.

The Foton-M4 research satellite launched on July 19 with five geckos on board. The plan: To observe their mating activities in the zero-gravity conditions of Earth orbit. Several other earthly creatures, including plants and insects, were also placed on board for experiments.

But shortly after the satellite made its first few orbits, it stopped responding to commands from mission control. The equipment on board, however, is still sending scientific data back to earth, a spokesman for Russia's Institute of Biomedical Problems said....MORE

Headline credit:

I can picture the Daily Mail headline now: MILLIONS SPENT ON FAULTY ORBITAL LIZARD SEX. As it completely overlooks that the crew can still see into the biosatellite via camera feeds and instrumentation.
posted by Slackermagee at 9:40 AM on July 25  

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