Autopsies performed on Russia's infamous sex geckos indicate that they died en masse about two days prior to their return to earth, leading scientist Sergei Savelyev said Tuesday. Russian news reports had claimed earlier that the geckos were found frozen and "mummified," a claim resolutely denied by Savelyev, the man in charge of the experiment. Their mission was simple: have sex in order to facilitate research on the effects of microgravity on reproduction.
They were launched into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan nearly two months ago to carry out a 60-day mission. But citing the mission's apparent success, Russia's space agency Roscosmos announced last week that the crew would return home after only 44 days in orbit. Sadly, the entire crew of sex geckos was found dead on arrival in Orenburg on Monday. Savelyev told reporters that autopsies were expected to be conducted on the entire five-gecko crew by the end of Tuesday.
Rotterdam, 02/09/2014-INC News
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