Vladimir Sychov, deputy director of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems and the lead researcher said this was to be expected. The surviving mice were sufficient to complete the study, which was designed to show the effects of weightlessness and other factors of spaceflight on cell structure, he said. All 15 of the lizards reportedly survived.
The capsule's orbit reached 575 kilometres (345 miles) above Earth. That's higher than the orbit of the International Space Station, which is currently at a maximum altitude of about 421 kilometres (262 miles). Russian state television showed the round Bion-M capsule after it landed slightly off course but safely in a planted field near Orenburg, about 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) southeast of Moscow.
"This is the first time that animals have flown in space for so long on their own," Sychov said in the television broadcast from the landing site. The mice and other animals were flown back to Moscow to undergo a series of tests at Sychov's institute, which is part of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
4 comments:
Survive space, die when you're back. No doubt they're going to cut them up.
You're probably right, Brixter.
Sadly.
They made a dog go to space in 1957. Laika died a painful death just hours after lift off. :(
Sharon
Regarding Laika, one of the lead scientists subsequently commented: The more time passes, the more I'm sorry. We did not learn enough from the mission to justify the death of the dog.
In Star City, just outside Moscow, there's a monument to fallen cosmonauts and Laika can be seen peeping out from behind the legs of one of them.
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