Russia regains control of biology satellite
Russian engineers have re-established contact with its Photon-M biology spacecraft carrying fruit flies, mushrooms, and five geckos.
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Russian engineers have re-established contact with its Photon-M biology spacecraft carrying fruit flies, mushrooms, and five geckos.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
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More than likely it was the geckos who re-established contact.
They probably wanted a pizza delivery.
Do the Geckos have a Russian or a British accent?
I wish we had pictures of the fruit flies in their little space suits.
One hopes that the Russian’s took 15 minutes to save 15% on their space craft insurance.
All kidding aside, folks, my question about this mission is why? This is the sort of thing the ISS is supposedly for. Since the Russkies obviously didn’t gin up this mission in merely the last few months, it looks as though they’ve been orienting themselves toward life in a post-ISS world for some time now. This makes me think the U.S.-based space cadets who scoff at the idea that Russia might actually follow through on its current plan to abandon ISS after 2020 might want to reconsider. I think they mean it.
Russia has been launching Photon-m biology satellites for decades, even when they had Mir in orbit. On one hand there are advantages to running some biology experiments on a separate unmanned satellite then on a manned station. On the other hand this program probably has momentum from the Soviet days as a pork project that keeps getting funding because it always has gotten funding and the people running it know the right politicians.
Was unaware of the legacy of this bird. Thanks for the info.