Russian biosatellite Foton-M with 5 geckoes, fruit flies, higher plants’ seeds and other biological materials onboard was launched with the help of Soyuz-2.1a booster from Baikonur spaceport, – Roscosmos spokesman reported.

The satellite was launched on July 19, at 00.50, Moscow time from 31 launchpad of Baikonur spaceport and separated from the booster at 00.58, Moscow time. Foron-M is expected to work on the orbit for about 2 months and after that its biocapsule with living organisms will return back to the Earth.

According to the Institute for Biomedical problems of Russian Academy of sciences most Foton-M scientific equipment of designed for experiments on living organisms.

“We will continue experiments on living organisms. This time we send to space 5 geckoes, fruit flights, microorganisms and higher plants’ seeds. Besides the experiments on gravitational physiology, exobiology, biological technology, radiation biology and radiation dosimetry”, – Institute for Biomedical Problems representative stated.

According to him it is not he first time we send geckoes to space but all the previous experiments lasted from two weeks to one month.  For example, 15 geckoes performed 30-days flight onboard Bion-M satellite last year. That time Bion- 1M descent capsule with mice, geckoes, fish, plants and artificial meteorites landed in Orenburg region, but most animals didn’t survive.