On September 01, 2014 at 09:18 UTC the Russian “Foton-M4” unmanned scientific spacecraft returned to Earth.

The Foton-M4 landing capsule with famed reptilian space tourists, known affectionately as the “sex geckos” (owing to the carnal nature of their space voyage), and also with drosophila fruit flies, seeds of plants, landed in the Orenburg region of southern Russia. Once reaching the landing site, a field lab was established to perform initial analysis of the scientific payloads at the landing site. Unfortunately, all the five geckos have died. The Foton-M4 satellite was launched on July 19, 2014 from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan. The specimens included geckos, silkworm eggs, dried seeds, fruit flies, and mushroo ... Read more »